by Roie Yellinek
Both Israel and Taiwan struggle for international recognition, yet have not recognized one another. This is essentially because the Israelis want a positive relationship with Beijing and the Taiwanese want a positive relationship with the Arab world.
Tsai Ing-wen, president of Taiwan, photo by CSIS via Flickr CC
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,480, March 12, 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: More
than 8,300 km separate Taiwan and Israel, but there are nevertheless
important connections between the two small countries. They do not
officially recognize each other, but over the past two and a half
decades, they have found ways to collaborate.
In the late 1940s, both Taiwan and the modern-day
State of Israel managed to face down massive powers that categorically
rejected their rights to their land. The Israelis’ opponents were an
array of Arab armies and terror groups (and their international
supporters) while the Taiwanese stood against the Communist Party of
China. The two countries are both islands of sorts: Taiwan a literal
island not far from mainland China, and Israel a metaphorical island
surrounded by states that reject its very existence.
Because of their physical isolation, both
countries needed a superpower to protect them, and the US was ready,
willing, and able to play that role. Israel and Taiwan view the US as a
great ally and benefit from its economic and military support, and both
wish to be viewed by the US as important allies in turn. The two states
have something else in common: a meager supply of natural resources but
an abundance of human capital.
Both Israel and Taiwan struggle for international
recognition, yet have not recognized one another. This is essentially
because the Israelis want a positive relationship with Beijing and the
Taiwanese want a positive relationship with the Arab world.
Israel was the first Middle Eastern country to
recognize the Communist Party of China as the official and only
representative of the Chinese people after the Chinese Civil War between
the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s other
name) and the Communist Party of China. (That war went on intermittently
from 1927 through 1949.) Similarly, the Taiwanese, like the Chinese,
were long afraid to recognize Israel or have any kind of open
relationship with it for fear that doing so would endanger their
relationship with the Arab world.
The countries started inching toward one another
in the 1980s and picked up the pace in the 1990s. In 1993 (a year after
Israel and China established diplomatic relations), the Ministry of
Economy and Trade of Taipei opened in Tel Aviv and Israel opened an
equivalent ministry in Taipei. This was the start of the relationship,
but it took a decade for the connection to flourish. Israel and Taiwan
have now signed more than 30 trade agreements, including a technology
cooperation agreement (2006), an e-government cooperation protocol
(2008), and a water cooperation agreement (2011).
This new level of cooperation was made possible by
big changes in the international and regional geopolitical environment.
The Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), the first Iraq War (1991), and the Madrid
Conference (1991) sent a message to the world that the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the only, or even the main, conflict
in the Middle East. This eased Taiwanese fears about losing their
relationships with the Arab world. That geopolitical shift allowed
Taiwan and Israel to collaborate in significant ways and strengthen
their relationship.
Taiwan has limited access to the arms market
because of its limited diplomatic relationships—but believes itself to
be under constant threat from the Chinese. In August 2019 it was
reported that Taiwan had unveiled a newly developed UAV that is
strikingly similar to an Israeli UAV, the Harpy. This was not the first
time the Taiwanese exhibited something that was almost an exact copy of
an Israeli product. This could be a sign of undisclosed cooperation, a
secret no one is trying very hard to keep.
Next to the defense industry, Israel is famous for
its agricultural technology, an area of expertise that is even more
attractive for Taipei. Taiwan’s challenges in this field include a lack
of sufficient land worthy of cultivation as well as changes in
population composition through aging and urbanization, which are causing
manpower shortages in agriculture. Israeli agricultural technology is
supporting Taiwanese efforts to develop “smart agriculture” to mitigate
these problems. In both cases, arms and agriculture, the benefits for
Israel are clear: it is expanding its market and gaining new clients.
“Israel and Taiwan complement each other in the
high-tech supply chain,” said Walter Yeh, president and CEO of TAITRA
(the Taiwan External Trade Development Council) after a meeting with his
Israeli counterpart in 2016. What he meant was this: Israel is a major
international start-up hub, while Taiwan is a major international hub
for hardware manufacturing (more than 83% of the world’s laptops are
produced in Taiwan). The countries complement each other and offer
international consumers a complete package. This Taiwanese-Israeli
synergy is expected to continue to grow.
The countries’ close relationships with the US
sometimes prompt moves that are directed from without. For example, the
US has essentially forced Israel to establish a mechanism for examining
foreign investment. This is something of a euphemism: it is primarily a
mechanism for examining Chinese investment in Israel, which the
Americans want to monitor.
An escalation of the China-US trade war could open
up new opportunities, especially for Taiwan. Factories might leave
China because of tariffs and other difficulties arising from the
struggle between the two giants. On the other hand, the trade war could
hurt the Taiwanese by encouraging the Chinese to provoke Taiwan to test
American willingness to protect it. For Israeli companies, the trade war
could open doors as they can serve as alternatives to US companies.
In an echo of the Taiwanese elections of four
years ago, Tsai Ing-wen’s resounding victory in the presidential
election on January 11 was a blow to China. Tsai, the leader of the
Democratic Progressive Party, won 57% of the vote versus her chief
rival’s 38%. Tsai supports separation from China and preservation of
Taiwan’s independence, while Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomintang Party backed a
more conciliatory approach, advocating a strong connection with
Beijing.
“Taiwan is showing the world how much we cherish
our free democratic way of life and how much we cherish our nation,”
Tsai said in her victory speech, warning China to stay out of the
island’s affairs. “I also hope that the Beijing authorities understand
that democratic Taiwan, and our democratically elected government, will
not concede to threats and intimidation.”
Source: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/taiwan-israel-collaboration/
Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment