Senior US Diplomat encourages Belize-Taiwan relations

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Julie Chung, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, was in Belize where she met with several government and private sector representatives, including Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow.
Other persons she met with included H.E. Remus Li-Kuo Chen, Ambassador of Taiwan in Belize, and as a part of Chung’s trip in Belize, she came to assure the United States’ support of the relationship shared between Belize and ROC (Taiwan). This comes in our 30th year of celebrating diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Chung, who was in the country for the first time, spoke to the media about her trip. Besides coming to reassure both countries’ of the US’s support of the relationship, she says she was also in country to congratulate the ambassador on the 30th year of relations with Belize. “I came to reaffirm the strong relationship between the United States and Belize. The wide ranging levels of cooperation and partnerships that we have. In addition, I also wanted to come and congratulate the Taiwanese ambassador here for the 30th anniversary of relationship between Taiwan and Belize and reaffirm our support for that partnership,” she said.
Along with promoting a relationship with Belize and Taiwan, Chung was also focused on discouraging countries from switching alliances from Taiwan to mainland China. Just recently, China manage to take two of Taiwan’s Central American allies, El Salvador and Panama. In the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic has also switched its allegiance to China. As a country in a trade dispute with mainland China, the United States is not too happy with the growing influence that China seems to be having on the region. Chung says that Taiwan and Belize both stand for things like democracy, open free markets, transparency, good governance, and anti-corruption. With a country like China dominating influence in the region, those things might be put at risk. Chung says that mainland has been encouraging “predatory actions” in the region and throughout the world, including predatory lending and debt diplomacy. She continues that with China’s technology, with use of facial recognition and other technologies, the sovereignty and national security of countries are being put to risk. “They are violating the sovereignty of these nations and this is a risk for national security of the countries that they are involved in. So we ask is that each country makes its own sovereign decision on what business deals they do with China, but make sure there is a due process, make sure you read the fine line, make sure there is a transparent process, make sure it’s in the goodwill of your country,” she said.