Slovenia joins Lithuania in taking on China

Slovenia joins Lithuania in taking on China

To be powerful you must be large a large population a large army but we often forget more important qualities to be powerful you also need courage and resolve qualities that slovenia has aced it's a country we rarely talk about around three times smaller than sri lanka two million citizens a gdp of 52 billion dollars nothing extraordinary about those numbers but what they lack in size they make up in spirit slovenia is taking on china they're challenging beijing's gospel truth their one china policy taiwan and slovenia are in talks to set up a representative office many are calling it a de facto embassy another european state lithuania.

Did the same last year now slovenia is following suit and just to be clear this is not official recognition slovenia's government is not recognizing taiwan but they do want a deeper relationship more trade more more cultural exchanges and more political synergy setting up in office is step one step two is lobbying for taiwan slovenia's prime minister has criticized china's attempts to keep taiwan out of the world health organization he also backed taiwan's right to choose its own path listen to what he said we support the sovereign decision of the taiwanese people if they want to join china without any pressure we will support it but if the taiwanese people want to live independently we are here to support that position it doesn't get clearer than that slovenia does not see taiwan as a wayward province of china.

It sees taiwan as a sovereign country as for beijing the prime minister had some tough words listen to this closely it's difficult to listen to a capital with a one-party system lecturing about democracy and peace around the world well someone had to say it how is china responding to slovenia's pivot they have a twin strategy the diplomats have one job the state media is another china's foreign ministry is calling these comments dangerous and shocking it's a dangerous statement made by the slovenian leader prime minister jayanes yansha that overtly challenges the one china principle and supports taiwan independence we are deeply shocked by this and strongly opposed to it the state media's response was more colorful they're not attacking the policy.

They're attacking the man behind it slovenia's prime minister yanez yansha here's what the global times wrote and i'm quoting yanshah is a right-wing troublemaker who does not tore the line with the eu yanshah's political image has shown that he is a fringe politician he's playing the taiwan card to cover his troubled resume we call this a smear piece if you cannot criticize the policy criticize the person behind it low even by china's standards their desperation is understandable though because slovenia is not an isolated case many central.

East european nations are now moving closer to taiwan last month estonia lithuania and latvia sent delegates to taipei they participated in taiwan's open parliament forum a few days later a delegation from slovakia also arrived it was the highest level diplomatic visit since 2003. beijing has clearly seen the bigger picture here east and central europe may not break that one china policy but they want closer cooperation with taiwan the question is why why is eastern europe picking taiwan over china we can think of two broad reasons number one is ideology eastern europe is made up of former soviet states estonia lithuania slovakia latvia they were all part of the soviet union their politicians grew up fighting communist russia they know what it means to live under a one-party dictatorship in other words what taiwan is experiencing today these states experienced in the 1980s fighting communism is in their dna reason number two they can afford to antagonize china these numbers should tell you why from 2000 to 2019 china invested 129 billion dollars in europe out of this only 10 billion went to central and eastern europe this pattern makes perfect sense western europe is saddled with chinese money so they are hesitant to take on beijing but eastern europe has no such hamstrings take slovakia for instance only one percent of their gdp comes from chinese investments in lithuania only one percent of their trade is linked to china on the other hand taiwan is an attractive partner countries like the czech republic and lithuania are focusing on technology 5g and semiconductors and guess who's a world leader in modern tech taiwan it's a perfect strategic match alone these countries may not be able to challenge china but put together they are a big political and economic force plus they're members of the european union and nato so that's economy and strategy and military check everyone believed that eastern europe would roll the red carpet for china they would be seduced by chinese money turns out the opposite is happening europe's big power should take lessons from these states they've dismantled a communist empire