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Wooing the islands.

Article Excerpt
Mario Katosang, Palau's minister of education, is no stranger to foreign travel. His ministry forged close cooperation with Japan. He is also regularly flown to Taipei and his ministry received a total amount of $1 million in 2006 and 2007 for infrastructure improvements to government-run schools. The government of Taiwan gives generous scholarships to the students of Palau and recently it began supplying the small Pacific Island nation's schools with brand new PCs.

"We were given 100 Windows-based computers by Taiwan," recalls Katosang. "The education sector uses predominately Apple Macintosh computers, so I mentioned that we may also need software. Taiwan immediately delivered 100 brand new copies of Windows XP, and offered to train our computer technicians."

Recognizing Taiwan, which calls itself the Republic of China, translates into investment, aid, and an air link that brings a regular flow of tourists from Taipei. Palau may be the richest of the Pacific Island Nations, but a substantial part of its "income" still comes in the form of aid from Japan, Taiwan, and other countries. This assistance also includes "compact money" from the United States. If asked to do so, Palau is willing to accept U.S. military bases, and this willingness is generously and annually rewarded by Washington.

"Taiwan sees diplomatic recognition by Pacific Island states as an important political weapon in its difficult relationship with China," explains Prof. Stuart Harris, a leading specialist in Chinese foreign policy at Australian National University. "China similarly seeks to persuade states recognizing Taiwan to change their diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic of China (PRC). It does not cost a lot financially to persuade government leaders in many of these states to see the advantage to them of changing their state's recognition from China to Taiwan and vice versa.".

"The context in which this competition plays out is a region largely of states that are weak in economic and governance terms, with governments that are often basically unstable," Harris continues. "Aid dependency is widespread and so is corruption. The impact of the competition between Taiwan and China, usually in the form of financial aid, undermines the considerable efforts made in a number of these states, such as the Solomon Islands and in Nauru, to raise living standards for their populations and to improve regional governance."

In the Pacific, foreign aid games, often called "checkbook diplomacy," are becoming extremely dangerous. They deepen dependency syndrome, a curse that is literally immobilizing Pacific Island Nations. This competition for influence fuels corruption and inflames racism. It also indirectly supports the status quo by strengthening the oppressive feudal and religious systems that still rule over a great majority of the nations in the region.

Highest Bidder

Several Pacific Island Nation governments are willing to "go with anybody," as long as it is lucrative....

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