Reject Lai Ching-Te’s “Faustian Diplomacy”! (2025/July)

 

Reject Lai Ching-Te’s “Faustian Diplomacy”!

An International Press Conference by the DangWai (Non-Partisan) Opposition Alliance of Taiwan

 

Taiwan has set yet another “first in the world” precedent.

According to a story that first broke with a report on July 20 in the South China Morning Post and that was subsequently picked up by various international media, Taiwan’s recent pledge to fund an Israeli settlement health project in the West Bank has broken international norms proscribing engagement with Israel’s occupation. Israel’s settlements and overall presence in the West Bank have been deemed illegal by several international bodies, including the United Nations Security Council (No.2334, 2016), United Nations General Assembly (2024/Sep.) and the International Court of Justice (2024/July). The ICJ has specifically ruled that all states are not to “render aid or assistance” toward “maintaining Israel's presence in the occupied territories.” Despite this consensus in the international bodies, “Taiwan seems to be,” according to Gleider Hernández, professor of public international law at the University of Leuven in Belgium, “the first government to make a direct financial contribution to the settlements.”

Yes, we have not forgotten about No Other Land, awarded Best Documentary Feature Film by the 97^th Annual Academy Awards. Screened recently in Taiwan, this documentary deeply informs our sense of outrage over the brutality visited by Israeli West Bank settlers upon dispossessed and brutalized Palestinians.

Nevertheless, Taiwan’s current DPP-run administration, backed by the party’s parliamentary caucus, has continued to conduct business as usual with Israel. The promise of donations to illegal settlements in the West Bank condoned by the Netanyahu government is nothing more than a naked transaction made in exchange for Israel’s political support of Taiwan. This kind of transactional support is, it must be said, of a shamelessly spurious nature. It is not based on the universal values of democracy and human rights, and its cost is to alienate and lose credibility from over 140 countries globally who recognize the Palestinian state, including the pending recognitions from France and Spain, and who condemn Israel’s illegal settlements.

The current DPP administration presides over a huge tax revenue surplus from 2024 reaching NT$500 billion (approximately US$16.8 billion), yet despite Taiwan’s current economic difficulties and the announcement of 20% tariffs on goods exported to the US, this administration refuses to execute the terms of a tax refund recently passed by the national legislature that would refund NT$10,000 (US$330) to citizens and non-citizen residents. Instead, this government is happy to channel much-needed funds to Israel, whose per capita GDP is 1.6 times that of Taiwan and whose international status as a rogue state in the Middle East, committing genocide in Gaza, is utterly notorious. No wonder activists in Taiwan have been quick to point out that the promised donation to illegal settlements in the West Bank is a source of deep shame, an embarrassment on an international scale that lends a new—and highly negative—connotation to the slogan, promoted by the DPP in recent years, “Taiwan Can Help.”

In addition to provoking an unfathomable loss of credibility on an international scale, Taiwan’s reckless actions also reawaken the baggage of deeper historical and structural precedents. For there was a time not so long ago when Taiwan was actively interested in learning from Israel, the American attack dog in the Middle East. In the 1960s and 70s, when the Israeli arms industry was a major supplier of small arms to Guatemala and Israel’s counterinsurgency experts advised security forces in Guatemala and other Central American nations in the genocidal operations conducted by brutal oligarchic dictatorships in the region, Taiwan’s political propagandists enthusiastically followed suit, sending their own delegations to help train Central American governmental death squads. Thus, Taiwan’s name was indissociably linked with that of Israel in assisting Central American dictatorial regimes, doing the bidding of US Empire to control its so-called “backyard.” In the eyes of the Global South, Taiwan lost credibility on an international scale a long time ago. In fact, the list of actions that have contributed to a growing loss of international credibility is long. The recent “Operation Grim Beeper” pager attack conducted by Israeli intelligence forces that resulted in indiscriminate mass civilian casualties relied on pagers suspiciously assembled by a certain manufacturing company in Taiwan.

The root cause of this notorious and illegal political tradition of Taiwan stems from Taiwan’s total dependence on the US after WWII. Boasting a strategic location in the First Island Chain as part of the US containment policy directed against China, Taiwan has willfully taken up a role as the unofficial provocateur for the US in East Asia by sporting an aggressive anticommunist posture. The current DDP government of Taiwan continues this ignominious tradition by advancing a policy of “Protecting Taiwan by Confronting China” (抗中保台) in order to gain American protection and acquire backing for the DPP’s claims to exclusively represent what it considers to be the national sovereignty of Taiwan against the so-called constant threats of China. In light of this sordid history, it is clear that Israel’s relation to Taiwan can be likened to that of a proverbial older brother. As the stronger and more infamous imperial attack dog in the Middle East, Israel has set a bad example for Taiwan, the “little brother” that emulates the older one by treating China as an alien enemy and confronting it in alignment with US strategic goals.

In order to definitively put an end to this notorious political legacy and to disassociate itself from Israel, Taiwan needs, variously, to stop constantly confronting China, to stop constantly being a vassal of the US, to bravely take a principled neutral position between China and the US, to interact in a friendly manner with both China and the US, and, finally, to befriend the Global South. This also means that we need to help the Palestinian people in both Gaza and the West Bank and sincerely donate whatever we can to help them. Although we may not be “first in the world” in this respect, it is never too late to offer a helping hand to the dispossessed.

To that end, we are compelled to express our solemn condemnation on four points of the Faustian diplomacy undertaken by President Lai. On Lai’s watch, Taiwan is trading with the devil, as it were, an inglorious deal symbolized by the unwholesome alignment between the settler colonial societies of Israel and the imperial United States—whether acting in the interest of preserving unipolar global dominance, or in the interest of a MAGA restoration:

1) Taiwan’s donation in this case openly violates international laws and would make Taiwan an accomplice to illegal occupation, colonization, and apartheid.

2) This is a shameful political transaction, trading Taiwan’s national integrity for spurious support.

3) This is yet another short-sighted policy of vassalization, sacrificing Taiwan’s diplomatic autonomy to a great power.

4) This is an open betrayal of Taiwan’s internal needs, ignoring the serious challenges to domestic livelihood.

Finally, we demand:

1) The DPP government should immediately stop all dealings related to illegal settlements in West Bank and apologize to Taiwan’s people for its serious diplomatic mistake.

2) The government of the Republic of China should not engage in any investment, technological cooperation, or official contacts with Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank.

(31/July/'25)

Note: The following was the supporting letter from Japan's AALA association.

We fully support your statement、strongly criticizing the Lai administration's policy on the urgent international issue. We share your position that the support for the Netanyahu administration is unacceptable, which continues its barbaric genocide, the starvation strategy in particular.

 

We empathy the reasons why the people of Taiwan have raised their voices in this manner. As the statement points out, the Lai administration in Taiwan appears to be complicit in the strategy of the U.S globalists and neoconservative forces, acting as a proxy to provoke the Mainland China, same as Zelensky in Ukraine against Russia and the Netanyahu in Israel against Middle Eastern countries. Japan is also being utilized in this strategy, and we strongly oppose it.

 

Stopping Israel's genocide and starvation strategy is an urgent task, but the international community's response remains sluggish. While countries like the UK and France have expressed their intention to recognize the Palestinian statehood, they have not taken concrete measures to stop Israel's current actions and continue to provide military support.

 

The Japanese government continues to provide technical cooperation to Israel, holds a significant amount of Israeli government bonds through the national pension fund, and owns a large stake in shares of American military companies that support Isreali crime.

 

Japan AALA demands that these forms of cooperation be immediately halted and that recognition of the Palestinian state be granted.

 

Let us come together to stop the genocide and Middle East invasion carried out by Israel and the United States and work towards peace in East Asia.

Best wishes for all friends