Taipei, Taiwan – Hundreds of foreign delegates were in Taipei last month to watch William Lai Ching- te sworn in as Taiwan’s fifth tagged chairman. Beijing, which claims the popular islet as its own, has ingrained Lai a “ rebel ” and “ troublemaker ” but that didn't stop as numerous as 508 foreign delegates from attending the form where they had frontal- row seats to the various cortege and flypast.
But while there were some from countries like Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, only a many were factual heads of state or high- ranking officers. They came from Taiwan’s 12 remaining formal politic abettors and included the king of Eswatini, the high minister of Tuvalu and the chairman of Paraguay.
The flags of their countries were on display each around the point of the induction alongside Taiwan’s flag, and there was a special round of applause for each leader during the form. The day before the induction, soon- to- be President Lai and Vice President HsiaoBi-khim had also taken the foreign leaders fumbling for prawns.
“ The Taiwanese government values its politic abettors , ” assistant professor Fang- Yu Chen from the Department of Political Science at Soochow University in Taipei told Al Jazeera. Since 2016, when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took the administration under Tsai Ing- wen, Beijing has turned up the heat on the islet, which at that time had 22 formal abettors.
Its officers rejected all preludes for addresses and stepped up sweats to invite the islet’s also- 22 politic abettors. Lai’s palm in January brought further of the same, with the Pacific islet of Nauru switching sides just days latterly and Beijing criticising countries similar as the Philippines that complimented Lai on his palm.
Amid continued pressure from China, Taiwan has sought to hold onto its formal abettors by pressing their common values and participated principles of freedom, republic and respect for mortal rights, but according to Brian Hioe, a political judge and author of Taiwan- concentrated magazine New Bloom, the reality is more complicated. “ It's about geopolitics, ” Hioe told Al Jazeera.
