which Chinese are these?

[Tordok]

DR1 News today has a blurp titled "Chinese peak into Dominican market". It is not clear, however implied, that this is a Beijing mission and not from Taipei. The country in question is referred to as the Republic of China* The DR has had bilateral commercial and diplomatic relations with the Taiwanese for a long time. Can anyone clarify which of the "2 Chinas"** is the article referring to?
If it is "Red China", can any of the experts around these forums comment on how the DR would manage to politically recognize both States? Is this good for the Dominican economy? Or politically?
thanks,
- Tordok
DATA: *The Republic Of China was founded by the Kuomintang (Chiang Kai-Shek and his people) in 1912 after overthrowing the Ching Dynasty. Kuomintang troops fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to the Chinese communists (chairman Mao and his people) to continue the ROC government on the island.

**Pro-independence activists in Taiwan think the name Republic of China is confusing. The official title of mainland China, which considers Taiwan as one of its provinces, is the People's Republic of China (PRC).

 

[Formosano2000]

Taiwan vs. China

I believe, judging from the spelling of the names, that the team is from "Red China", which has agressively been wooing DR of late, hoping to sever the official diplomatic relations between Taiwan and DR.

Taiwan, since its voluntary withdrawal from United Nations in the early 1970's, has steadily been losing formal diplomatic ties yearly and is down to it's last 20 or so.

What China typically does is bribe a gullible country with US$ and then cuts off funding after that country breaks up with Taiwan. This has happend to South Africa, among others. I see DR as a perfect next victim.

Taiwan has aided DR in many ways other than direct US$ loans. There are agricultural and seafood-farming teams permanently based here that have helped/taught local DR farmers. These are the kind of human capital investments that money cannot easily buy.

Both Taiwan and China have mega-bucks to burn when it comes to competing for diplomatic allies. But countries that cuts ties with Taiwan and opt for China usually get burned at the end when China ignores them after having established skeleton embassies and it is no longer possible to ask Taiwan for more money. At the same time, expect lots of Chinese cheap imports while China doesn't care for products made in countries other than US/European ones.

DR policy makers beware !!

DR1 News today has a blurp titled "Chinese peak into Dominican market". It is not clear, however implied, that this is a Beijing mission and not from Taipei. The country in question is referred to as the Republic of China* The DR has had bilateral commercial and diplomatic relations with the Taiwanese for a long time. Can anyone clarify which of the "2 Chinas"** is the article referring to?
If it is "Red China", can any of the experts around these forums comment on how the DR would manage to politically recognize both States? Is this good for the Dominican economy? Or politically?
thanks,
- Tordok
DATA: *The Republic Of China was founded by the Kuomintang (Chiang Kai-Shek and his people) in 1912 after overthrowing the Ching Dynasty. Kuomintang troops fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to the Chinese communists (chairman Mao and his people) to continue the ROC government on the island.

**Pro-independence activists in Taiwan think the name Republic of China is confusing. The official title of mainland China, which considers Taiwan as one of its provinces, is the People's Republic of China (PRC).

 

[Tordok]

the DR & 2 Chinas

Formosiano,
Thanks for your insight on this topic. With a name like Formosiano I'd take it that you are much beter informed re. the ongoing battles of the 2 Chinas than any of us in the Western Hemisphere.

The DR, after many decades of rejecting direct relations with communist States during the Cold War era, has in recent years opened to its neighbor Cuba and apparently now is being engaged by "Red" China. In my naivet? I would've assumed that doing business with a huge country like the PRC might benefit the DR, but from your comments it would seem that their agenda is that of furthering their goal of complete diplomatic isolation of Taiwan rather than creating new opportunities for Dominican development and businnesses.

To some extent the PRC is also a competitor with the Dominican Republic in areas such as textiles for export to the U.S. Economies more diversified and much larger than the DR's, like Mexico's have allegedly been losing many jobs to the PRC due to an even cheaper labor market there. We are already seeing "zona franca" operators moving from the DR to Haiti for the same reason. The large multinationals cannot ignore the size of the mainland Chinese economy and thus feel a need to accommodate them in any way they can. It would be interesting to see if a small nation like the DR can resist the pressure from that huge Asian country and actually manage to remain loyal to its friend of so many years, Taiwan. How large is the Chinese community in the DR? and what do the majority of them do? Just curious.

-Tordok

 

[Chirimoya]

Formosano, this is interesting. The fact that Taiwan had withdrawn from the UN had escaped me. I had always thought the wooing of the small nations by countries involved in bitter disputes such as Taiwan, mainland China, Israel etc was about garnering support in United Nations votes: if Taiwan is not in the UN what is its motivation in investing so much in countries like the DR? What does it get out of merely having diplomatic relations?

Chiri

 

[Arve]

Taiwan didn't really withdraw, they were pretty much booted
out. They buy off small states like DR 'cos they want
recognition as an independent state. ( Or so I believe. ) I'm not
sure if many states have recognised Taiwan, not many I
believe. I'm not quite sure if they have a lot of formal diplomatic
ties either.

Are they represented in the DR with a proper embassy and an
ambassador, or do they have some other type
of "representative"?

 

[Tordok]

embassy level relations DR-ROC

Embassy of the Republic of China in the Dominican Republic
Edif. PALIC, Primer Piso
Av. Abraham Lincoln, #952
Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana

Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Taipei, China
6F, 9, Lane 62
Tienmu W. Rd
Taipei, Taiwan