Editorial: Stand by Taiwan

What if George W. Bush decided that in order to actually carry Florida this time, he’s going to overthrow Fidel Castro come Hell or high water, and that Panama must decide whether it’s for or against the United States and either break diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba or else forfeit such ties with the Americans?

Fidel’s getting especially crank --- downright vicious really --- in his old age. At the moment there would be good reason for a strain in relations between our government and his. But he does run Cuba and it’s not for any other country to tell Panama what its foreign policy must be.

So let us hope that if the Bush administration’s arrogance were directed at us in that particular way, the Panamanian government would call its ambassador home from Washington and send the US ambassador here a polite goodbye note that expresses the hope that the break in diplomatic relations would be brief.

There have been times when the United States did not allow Panama to have a foreign policy of its own. But after generations of hard-fought struggles we are no longer a US protectorate, we are no longer bisected by an American colony and --- although we don’t always do so wisely --- we exercise our right to an independent foreign policy.

So why, after all those hard-won gains, should Panama start taking orders from another foreign power?

Taiwan has in effect been an independent country since 1949. The People’s Republic of China has never exercised authority there. For about a century before 1945, it was a Japanese colony. Very few of its people prefer to be ruled by Beijing through an appointed governor like Hong Kong’s.

And Taiwan has always been a good friend of Panama’s.

Have there been strains in Panama’s relationship with Taiwan? Of course there have been irritants. When we have had crooked governments here Taipei has played along as if all was well, and the recent elections in Taiwan don’t smell right to Panamanians who place a high value on democracy. (What’s that stench? Add the aroma of five spices powder to the smell of the 2000 US presidential election and you get a close approximation.)

But Panama’s friendship has been with Taiwan, not one of its political parties or ephemeral political leaders. It has been a close friendship, one that has survived through good times and bad, a relationship that ought to be preserved.

So when China --- the world’s most populous country and an ever-stronger world power --- tells Panama that the price of normal relations with the government in Beijing must be the end of our friendship with Taiwan, it’s an offer that this country can and should refuse.

It’s not that good relations with China would be undesirable for Panama. It’s a matter of Panama taking a principled anti-imperialist stand, one that rejects Chinese claims against the sovereignty of a nation that has been independent for many decades, one that rejects the notion of any great power giving foreign policy orders to Panama. We ought to have normal relations with Beijing, but not at the price it demands.

The issue is topical at the moment because China and a number of Panamanians who favor a change in diplomatic relations are waging a major campaign to get the incoming Torrijos administration to ditch Taiwan.

But let’s hope that Martín Torrijos will continue the China policy that his father pursued, and that subsequent Panamanian governments have maintained. Panama should stand by our old friend Taiwan.

editorial

Stand by Taiwan

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