Taiwan Breaks Through China’s “Horn-digging” Offensive with Somaliland Ties

As China has continuously blocked Taiwan’s international space in recent years and “poached” the friendship with Taiwan, the representative office of Taiwan’s “Somaliland Republic” in Africa officially opened on Monday (August 17). Soon, Somaliland representative office in Taipei will also open.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released news on its website on Monday that Taiwan’s representative in Somaliland, Luo Zhenhua, and Somaliland Foreign Minister, HE Yassin Hagi Mohamoud, co-hosted the unveiling ceremony. A prerecorded congratulatory video of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was played at the ceremony, and Foreign Minister Wu Zhaoxie also delivered a live speech.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in the news that Wu Zhaoxie stated in his speech that Taiwan and Somaliland started cooperation in the fields of medical and health, education and maritime security since 2009. After the official operation of the representative office, the cooperation between the two countries will continue to expand and deepen. Taiwan will also continue to cooperate with partners with similar ideas in the Horn of Africa to jointly promote regional stability and prosperity.

In his speech, Minister Yassin emphasized that it is the best time for Somaliland and Taiwan to strengthen bilateral economic and trade relations on the basis of mutual benefit. Somaliland and Taiwan believe in the values ​​of freedom and democracy and will move forward hand in hand in the future.

After the inauguration ceremony, Wu Zhaoxie and Yassin signed a technical cooperation agreement between the two governments on behalf of the two governments by video.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in July this year that Taiwan and Somaliland had agreed to establish each other’s official representative offices in February this year. Wu Zhaoxie said at the time that the name “representative office” was because the two parties did not have informal diplomatic relations and did not use the name “Republic of China”, but the representative office is of an official nature and is an organization representing the governments of both sides.

Somaliland representative in Taiwan, Muhamud, arrived in Taiwan on August 7. He is currently in isolation at home and is preparing for the opening of the office. Muhamud said through Twitter that he was pleased to see the foreign ministers of the two countries co-chairing the ceremony, and the representative office of the Somaliland in Taiwan will soon be opened.

The “Republic of Somaliland” in the Horn of Africa has a population of approximately 3.9 million. In 1991, it declared independence from Somalia, which had fallen into a civil war. However, the “Somaliland Republic” has not been recognized by the international community and is not a member of the United Nations.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Somaliland has undergone three presidential elections since independence, and its political situation is stable. It is “a country with a similar concept of democracy and freedom as Taiwan.”

At present, 8 countries and international organizations (the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ethiopia, Turkey, Djibouti, Canada, the European Union and the United Nations) have established representative offices in Somaliland. Somaliland also has representative offices in 22 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and France.

The establishment of representative offices between Taiwan and Somaliland is the first time that Taiwan has established a new official representative office since the Democratic Progressive Party government took office after Taiwan lost multiple diplomatic ties with few countries under the CCP’s “poaching” offensive. Some analysts say that this latest development in diplomacy does not mean that Taiwan will be able to reverse the trend of continued compression of international space by the CCP.

Regarding the mutual representative offices between Taiwan and Somaliland, the Chinese Embassy in Somalia tweeted on its Twitter account on July 1, stressing that there is only one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and the People’s Republic of China is the only representative China’s legitimate government, the Chinese government firmly opposes the “two Chinas”, “one China, one Taiwan”, “Taiwan independence” and Taiwan independence separatist forces to promote Taiwan independence activities, “Never allow any person, organization or political party to use Split any piece of territory from China in any form.”

Since Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May 2016, he did not recognize the “92 Consensus” of the KMT’s Ma Ying-jeou regarding cross-strait relations when he was in power. The CCP subsequently severed ties with the Tsai Ing-wen government and further imposed diplomatic, economic and military pressure. Including economic incentives for Taiwan’s few allies to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan and preventing Taiwan’s participation in international activities, including the World Health Organization General Assembly.

As of September 2019, Taiwan has lost seven diplomatic countries. Currently, Taiwan has 15 diplomatic relations. However, as of March 2020, holders of the Republic of China passports enjoy visa-free, visa-on-arrival or e-visa benefits in 170 countries or regions around the world.

Beijing’s suppression of Taiwan has further deepened the sympathy of the two parties in the U.S. Congress for Taiwan and prompted the United States to further strengthen its relations with Taiwan’s officials and the military.

As U.S.-China relations have continued to deteriorate for more than a year, President Trump’s administration has made pro-democratic Taiwan a priority policy and has strengthened arms sales to Taiwan.

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar arrived in Taiwan on August 9 for a visit and met with President Tsai Ing-wen. Hazard is the highest-ranking U.S. member of the U.S. to visit Taiwan since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China in 1979, and the first U.S. cabinet member to visit Taiwan in six years.

Beijing, which insists that Taiwan is a province to be reunified by China and threatens with force from time to time, protested Hazard’s visit to Taiwan, saying that the visit violated the United States’ commitment not to have official contacts with Taiwan. However, the US Congress passed the cross-party “Taiwan Travel Act” in 2018, encouraging Washington to send higher-level officials to visit Taiwan to support Taiwan’s democracy.

Source: VoA