New Kosova Report

Taiwan recognizes Kosovo independence

Monday, 18 February 2008

Taiwan recognizes Kosovo independence

Following Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia, it has received formal diplomatic recognition by Taiwan. In its statement, Taiwan said that "it is the people who are masters of their nation's future". Taiwan's existence is threatened by a territorial claim by China, which prevents it from obtaining widespread recognition and a United Nations membership. TAIPEI (Tiraspol Times) - Less than a day after Kosovo broke with Serbia through an unilateral, unapproved (by Serbia) independence declaration, the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a formal message to the new Kosovar government to congratulate it for attaining 'the fruits of independence, democracy and freedom.'

" - Self-determination is a right recognized by the United Nations, and it is the people who are masters of their nation's future," the Taiwanese foreign ministry said in a statement. "In no way should the independence of one nation be denied by another."

" - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) congratulates Kosovo on its independence," read the statement of recognition which now opens the door for diplomatic relations between these two breakaway states.

" - Despite a multitude of barriers, the people of Kosovo have insisted on an ideal that they believe in, which is to peacefully pursue independence, without being threatened or scared away. Their determination in achieving this lofty ideal is truly admirable," read the Taiwanese statement.

" - Taiwan is a member of the international community that cherishes democracy and freedom, and the government is delighted that the people of Kosovo have the fruits of independence, democracy and freedom to look forward to. May Kosovo enjoy a bright and prosperous future."

China angry

China, which like Russia is opposed to Kosovo independence, pledged to not recognize Kosovo and lashed out against Taiwan for its message of support.

Mainland China criticized Taiwan for its expression of support for Kosovo's newfound independence. It angrily informed Taiwan that, as it is part of China, it has no right to give recognition to Kosovo or to anyone else for that matter.

" - It is known to all that as a part of China, Taiwan has no right or eligibility to give the so-called 'recognition' (to Kosovo)," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement.

Despite ruling over its island as a 'de facto' independent nation and having full internal sovereignty, Taiwan has diplomatic ties with just 23 countries due to a territorial claim by neighboring China. The strategy which China uses to deny formal relations to Taiwan is to force other countries to choose between relations with either Taiwan or China, but not both.

Such a hardline stance is not the norm in international law, where third party countries are normally able to maintain relations with two countries even though they are both involved in a bilateral conflict. In such cases, the third party state merely abstains from taking a position in the conflict and continues to carry out other, non-related normal diplomatic relations with both sides to the dispute regardless of their individual differences.

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John said:

If Serbia dares to touch kosovo by froce either from its own country or third country like Russia and the Peoples Republic of China then the US and NATO will retaliate against Serbia and that third nation with force. Kosovo should have a independent economy from Serbia. The US and NATO should donate weapons to Kosovo including missiles from the US in which the missiles should have the word Made in the USA not the word Russia. The US and NATO nations have advance weapons then Russia and China.

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February 26, 2008
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prokosovo said:

	I think that any population that wishes to become independent should get its wish. Especially a population that, like Kosovo, has been oppressed by slaughtered by a fascist government for an entire decade. Go Kosovo!
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February 25, 2008
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Rrahman Mjaki said:

Quoting Damon: "I should also point out the other countries clamoring for recognition: Somalialnd, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Sealand. will Kosovo extend a hand of friendship to them?"

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I can guarantee you that Kosovos foreign policy will respect international law. Kosovo is being recognised by many states, because of being a unique case which does not create a precedent for other "separatists" to follow. It is not in Kosovos interest to contribute to create instability in the world.

Many separatist movements praise Kosovo, and think that now they finally have a precedent to follow... Well, think again, because before those separatists try to use Kosovo as a "model" they have to fulfill the same legal conditions as Kosovo:

- occupied in 1912 (after 500 hundred years of ottoman occupation)
- majority albanian population (93%)
- annexed in Yugoslavia against our will
- had autonomy, but it was revoked in 1988 by miloshevics regime
- horrible dictature and surpression. Albanian language was forbidden etc.
- in 1998: genocide, 120 000 houses destroyed, and over 1 million of albanians had to flee to the neighbouring countries in order to save their lives...
- from 1999 to 2008: UN protectorate.
- albnian population dont trust serbian government. Why go back to autonomy now in 2008 when we already had that in 1988?!

= Serbia has lost all moral and legal rights to rule over Kosovo (even though it was occupied in 1912, and wasnt part of Serbia in the first place)

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February 25, 2008
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PROTAIWAN said:

@M Your statement Taiwan is part of China is somewhat false and right. Taiwan (ROC) was older than the PRC, The followers of ROC escaped to Formosa Island (Taiwan) and kept the name ROC, somehow it changed the name to Taiwan. But official our name is still ROC. The PRC had never set foot on Formosa Island (today Taiwan), but it claims that Formosa belongs to PRC.
Please, note - in the histroy of Chinese Emporers, Formosa Island was for a few times China's, but the PRC had never set foot on Formosa Islands. Henceforth the ROC is older than PRC, and she continues living as ROC.
You said in your statement that Taiwan was not democratic when it decided to seperate from China is partly correct only.
Before Taiwan became democratic (7 years ago), it was Republic, ROC = Republic of China (Taiwan), but never PRC (People's Republic of China) = Mainland China. Taiwan has been seperated since PRC appeared and overtook Mainland.

I am not Taiwanese, but I live here to I study Asian History. And all of my mates agree that to study the truth of China's history can be found mostly in Taiwan. Because Mainland has simplified the Chinese writing Mainland does not give out reliable statistics. In desperation for our studies, most of us decided to search answers in Taiwan.

Cheerz

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February 24, 2008
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PROTAIWAN said:

JUST USE GOOGLE "ROC WIKIPEDIA" AND READ THE REAL HISTORY OF TAIWAN (ROC). YOU WILL KNOW THAT ROC IS OLDER THAN PRC

It was one of the victorious powers of World War II[6] and a founding member of the United Nations[7]. Historically, it encompassed all of mainland China before the Kuomintang (KMT) lost effective control of mainland China to the Communist Party of China in the Chinese Civil War by the 1950s. Since then, its authority has been limited to the island groups of Taiwan (Formosa), the Pescadores, Kinmen, and the Matsu Islands — Kuomintang forces entered and assumed control of these islands at the end of World War II. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has been commonly referred to as "Taiwan". Since the late 1970s the name "China" is commonly used to refer to the People's Republic of China (PRC). Because of diplomatic pressure from the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China is commonly referred to as "Chinese Taipei" in international organizations. Its capital city is Taipei[1].

The Republic of China was established in 1912, replacing the Qing Dynasty and ending over two thousand years of imperial rule in China. It is the oldest surviving republic in East Asia.

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February 23, 2008
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GreenClaw said:

	Just for Curiosity. Did China ever Invaded Taiwan and did what The Serb Regime with Milosevic did to Republic of Kosova?
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February 22, 2008
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pabloli said:

	Living as a dog in Taiwan is better than living as human in china...
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February 22, 2008
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kekou said:

	TAIWAN is TAIWAN ; CHINA is CHINA , One side one country... TAIWAN is not under control of PRC. No doult, Taiwan is A Independ COUNTRY!
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February 21, 2008
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m said:

	first of all, taiwan is part of mainland china. taiwan wasn't democratic state when it decided to separate from PRC. Also, based on the agreements between Nixon and Mao, nixon agreed that taiwan belonged to mainland china, thus, the us recognized china and kicked taiwan from the security council.
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February 21, 2008
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jojo said:

	Taiwan has its own land, government, finance, and military. China does not own Taiwan. China has no control on Taiwan. Taiwan is definitely not a part of China. :)
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February 20, 2008
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Taiwanese said:

Obviously a couple people here got brain-washed pretty well by the PRC. Taiwan was not part of PRC in the first place. Democracy, freedom, and all that are not the cause but the effect of Taiwan being independent from PRC in the beginning. The biggest lie told a million times would come true? Or grab a bunch of powerful friends, with some carrtos and sticks in hand, and make them believe the lie first, then the lie will become true? PRC's people in general are not bad but the way this country acts really make me sick.

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February 20, 2008
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Adagio said:

	The answer is CHINA~~
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February 20, 2008
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TAIWAN said:

	TAIWAN IS NOT A PART OF CHINA! Kosovo VIVA!
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February 20, 2008 | url
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DAVID said:

	You are not right! You don't know anything about it. Please keep silence.
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February 20, 2008
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Guest said:

I can't agree with Mike more! The simple historical reality is that Beijing could never do a dxxxed about Taiwan, no matter positive or negative. The regime in Beijing has just never had any single touch on the island, since its proclamation on Oct. 1, 1949. The closest try that the Beijing gov't has ever done, is to launch hundreds of missiles around the island. That is incredibly sweet. I wonder how many missiles Milosevic has ordered to shoot on the soil of Kosovo. Probably incomparable.

And by the way, it is not surprising that Chinese criticize a lot any democracy, though they do not have it, either. The official discourse of the so-called communist government (with Chinese particularities, in their own terms) repeats year after year that the western democracy is not worth imitating. They still have ten thousand arguments against it. Well, we know that grapes are not always sweet....

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February 20, 2008
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Bashkim said:

	Yes Tjark you are right when you said :It's a shame that it has taken so long... these are the best word for all these situation.
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February 20, 2008
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Waiming said:

Mike's opinion that "Taiwan is not an independent country" is missing the whole point -- in these disputes there will always be conflicting opinions like that, by definition. Both the Republic Of China and the People's Republic Of China have committed atrocities in the past. But today, Taiwan is democratic and free whereas the PRC is authoritarian. Obviously Taiwan will support Kosovo's democratic self-determination by analogy with its own situation.

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February 19, 2008
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Damon said:

Taiwan (Republic of China) recognition is welcome, particularly since the Communist Chinese are spurning recognition of Kosova. Will Kosova reciprocate though, and will it also reciprocate recognition to the other 'spurned nation' that has recognized them (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus). given the Republic of Cyprus' successful efforts to split the EU on the recognition issue, it would be appropriate, and Kosovo would needn't worry about the anti-TRNC UN resolutions as it does no apply to non-UN Members (Red China and Russia will ensure that the UN will be out of reach of Kosova for the time being).
I should also point out the other countries clamoring for recognition: Somalialnd, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Sealand. will Kosovo extend a hand of friendship to them?

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February 19, 2008
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LING SUN said:

You are too simple, and naive to say that Kosovo is a "democratic" country. Let us see whether the Kosovo "government" will have the gut to "recognize" Taiwan. On the world stage, there is no forever friends or foes, interests weight more. EU needs kosovo to counter-balance Russia, do you guys really think EU will treat you like a normal EU state? I doubt it. They cannot even treat their own citizens equally, look at those muslims living in France, Germany, UK...Kosovo, like Taiwan are just pawns of big powers on this big world stage. Forget about democracy, forget about freedom, forget about liberty. Wake up, you guys, what will happen next will be interesting, Kosovo can survive only if its government learn to play the games with big powers.

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February 19, 2008 | url
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Mike said:

Such a hardline stance is not the norm in international law, where third party countries are normally able to maintain relations with two countries even though they are both involved in a bilateral conflict.
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It might be true when it comes to the relationship among three countries. But in the Taiwan situation, only two countries are involved, Taiwan is not an independent countries yet. so there is no way to adapt this norm to it.
And those who said Peiking has treated Taiwan really bad is obviously lack of basic historical common sense.

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February 19, 2008
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Tjark said:

It is a shame that democratic countries such as Kosovo and Taiwan are not recognized while other states with terrible regimes, dictators and killers are recognized as independent states. These regimes talk about breach of international law? They do break it all the time!!! It is not the fault of he USA or other countries that Kosovo no longer wishes to be part of Serbia or that Taiwan does not want to be part of China. Both the governments in Belgrade and Peijing have treated the Kosovo people and Taiwan people very bad. This is the real reason why Taiwan and Kosovo are seperate nations today and they deserve to be! Kosovo and Taiwan must become UN members as soon as possible. As the world is today we could need two more democracies with the rule of law. Personally, I am very happy that Kosovo is now free for once and for all. It's a same that it has taken so long...

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February 18, 2008
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