Taiwan Chequebook Diplomacy in Paraguay : case study International Cooperation and Development Funds in 2016-2023

Abstract

Taiwan’s chequebook diplomacy is a controversial foreign policy because its nature to lure foreign countries easily but also very risky. Even though it is very risky, Taiwan cannot fully abandon the foreign policy because chequebook diplomacy is so far the only effective foreign policy for Taiwan, especially in Latin America. Even so, Taiwan’s presence in Latin America have diminished in recent years. With the switch of Honduras to China, Paraguay has become Taiwan’s only strongest ally in Latin America. As such, the topic of abandoning the foreign policy has become an important issue for Taiwan. The main force that strongly push the abandonment of chequebook diplomacy came from Taiwanese media. Even so, chequebook diplomacy is not a completely depraved foreign policy and in fact, Taiwan have successfully implemented it. Taiwan’s International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) is a government funded organisation and it has act as a bridge between Taiwan and the Paraguayan. This study aims to answer the question: “How International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) as an instrument of Taiwan’s chequebook diplomacy become dilemmatic for Taiwan in the span of 2016-2023?”. This study aims to analyse on how ICDF become Taiwan’s soft power instrument. Through qualitative case study research method with secondary data collecting technique, it is found that the presence of Taiwan’s ICDF in Paraguay have a positive impact toward Taiwan’s public opinion in Paraguay especially through their humanitarian projects and scholarship programmes. Even so, this foreign policy becomes a dilemmatic problem for Taiwan because on one hand, they need a good relation with Paraguayan elites while on the other hand there are issues such as corruption, misappropriation of funds, and human rights violations in Paraguay.