时论广场》金援友邦 助长他们腐败（方恩格Ross Darrell Feingold）

图为手持中华民国国旗的尼加拉瓜学生。（图／美联社）

与过去台湾一般事态发展的情况一样，国际社会也会就尼加拉瓜与中华民国断交并承认中华人民共和国的决定发表意见。然而，外国学者、政府和媒体的一些意见却很奇怪。

曾任台湾傅尔布莱特研究员、台湾大学访问学者、现为哈佛大学费正清中国研究中心博士后的南乐在推特上写道：「尽管反对党会借此攻击蔡英文，但我相当肯定成千上万的台湾人醒来后看到新闻，会认为『嗯，我不知道尼加拉瓜（过去）也认识我们…』」

这条推文是在台湾时间周五凌晨发送的，大约是在台湾民众被突发新闻唤醒的时间。波士顿的学者怎么可能「确定」台湾人醒来时会说什么？

我身为外国观察者，看到其他外国评论员高估了他们对台湾的了解，试图告诉世界台湾人会说什么，会怎么想，让我感到有点难过。此外，尽管部分国民党立委呼吁外长吴钊燮下台，但民进党实际上利用尼加拉瓜的决定来攻击国民党主席朱立伦。这是因为朱谴责尼加拉瓜的「恶意」（背信忘义），但只有「对中国限制台湾的国际空间深表遗憾」。民进党认为，朱立伦应在第13届「海峡论坛」严正抗议北京断我友邦，这正给了民进党批评朱立伦的理由。

对尼加拉瓜决定的另一个奇特反应来自美国国务院发言人普莱斯，他在一份声明中说：「然而我们确实知道，这剥夺了尼加拉瓜人民在其民主和经济增长方面的一个坚定伙伴。」现实是，近年来，尼加拉瓜既没有民主增长，也没有经济增长。奥蒂嘉总统及其政府近年来为确保他在2021年连任而采取的镇压反对派和媒体的行动，受到大多数民主国家的谴责，但值得注意的是，民进党政府并没有直接批评奥蒂嘉，以免危及外交关系。至于经济增长，近年来（在疫情爆发之前），管理不善、腐败等因素导致尼加拉瓜经济增长下滑，台湾有限的援助和贸易往来，都无法解决这一问题。

最后，路透发表了一篇关于尼加拉瓜与台湾断交的报导，标题是「中国和尼加拉瓜重建关系，打击美国和台湾」。这个标题没特别之处。2017年巴拿马与中华民国断交时，彭博社发表了一篇题为「巴拿马与中国建立关系，对台湾的最新打击」的报导。2018年多明尼加与中华民国断交时，美联社发表题为「打击台湾，多明尼加与中国建交」的报导、2018年萨尔瓦多与中华民国断交时，《纽约时报》发表了一篇题为「萨尔瓦多承认中国，打击台湾」的报导。

这表明记者们并没有努力检查不久前是否使用了类似的措辞来报导类似的新闻。但更重要的是，这些国家决定不承认中华民国并不是对台湾的「打击」。与这些国家建立外交关系无助于台湾的经济安全、军事安全，也无助于台湾参与国际组织。台湾的财政援助通常会让腐败或不民主的领导人在其国家保持权力。无论是台湾政府还是反对党，都应该传达这样的讯息：这不是对台湾的打击，没有必要由外国学者、外国政府或国际媒体来表达「遗憾」。（作者为前美国共和党亚太区主席）

原文：

Peculiar Foreign Reactions to Nicaragua De-Recognition

By Ross Darrell Feingold

Former Asia Chairman, Republicans Abroad

Twitter: @RossFeingold

As is usual with developments in Taiwan, the international community also had to have its input with regard to Nicaragua’s decision to derecognize the Republic of China and to recognize the People’s Republic of China. However, some of the input from foreign scholars, governments, and media was peculiar.

Lev Nachman a former Fulbright Research Fellow in Taiwan and Visiting Fellow at National Taiwan University who is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard University Fairbank Center for China Studies tweeted that “Even though opposition parties will use this to attack Tsai, I’m fairly certain that thousands of Taiwanese will wake up, read the news, and think “Huh, I didn’t know Nicaragua (used to) recognize us…””

This tweet was sent in the early hours of Friday morning Taiwan time, around the time when here in Taiwan we awoke to the breaking news.

How can a scholar in Boston possibly be “certain” about what people in Taiwan will say when they wake up?

As a foreign commentator on Taiwan affairs myself, it disgusts me when other foreign commentators, many of whom overestimate their understanding of Taiwan, attempt to tell the world what Taiwanese people will say or think.

In addition, notwithstanding that some Kuomintang legislators called on Foreign Minister Joseph Wu to resign, the Democratic Progressive Party actually used Nicaragua’s decision to attack Kuomintang Chairman Eric Chu. This is because Chu’s response to condemn Nicaragua's “bad faith” (背信忘义), but only “strongly regret that China restricts Taiwan’s international space” (对岸中共长期以来打压我国国际的空间，表示强烈的遗憾), combined with Chairman Chu’s speech to the Straits Forum the following day, gave the Democratic Progressive Party several reasons to criticize Chu.

Another peculiar reaction to Nicaragua’s decision came from United States Department of State spokesman Ned Price, who said in a statement “We do know, however, that this deprives Nicaragua’s people of a steadfast partner in its democratic and economic growth.” The reality is that in recent years, Nicaragua had neither democratic growth nor economic growth. President Daniel Ortega and his government’s actions to suppress opposition politicians and the media in recent years, to ensure his re-election in 2021, was condemned by most democratic countries, though notably, the Taiwan government did not criticize Ortega so as not to jeopardize diplomatic relations. As for economic growth, in recent years (prior to Covid-19), mismanagement, corruption and other factors resulted in falling economic growth in Nicaragua, which Taiwan’s limited aid and trade was unable to address.

Finally, Reuters published a report about Nicaragua’s derecognition of Taiwan with the headline “China and Nicaragua re-establish ties in blow to U.S. and Taiwan”. This headline is no surprise. In 2017 when Panama derecognized the Republic of China, Bloomberg published a report with the headline “Panama to Establish Ties With China in Latest Blow to Taiwan”. in 2018 when the Dominican Republic derecognized the Republic of China the Associated Press published a report with the headline “In blow to Taiwan, Dominican Republic forges ties with China”, and also in 2018 when El Salvador derecognized the Republic of China, The New York Times published a report with the headline “El Salvador Recognizes China in Blow to Taiwan”.

At a minimum, this shows journalists do not make the effort to check whether similar wording was used to report similar news not long ago.

But more importantly, these countries decision to derecognize the Republic of China are not a “blow” to Taiwan. Diplomatic relations with these countries did not help Taiwan’s economic security, military security, or participation in international organizations. Often, Taiwan’s financial assistance has allowed corrupt or undemocratic leaders to retain power in some of these countries. Whether the Taiwan government or opposition political parties, the message should be this is not a blow to Taiwan, and a “pity party” from foreign scholars, foreign governments, or the international media is unnecessary.