TAIPEI -- With China applying economic and military pressure in the lead-up to Taiwan’s elections, Beijing’s policy toward the island nation is again in the spotlight and being closely watched by the United States and Europe.
But there’s one aspiring EU member that’s staying clear of Taipei and its parliamentary and presidential elections next week: Georgia.
The small Caucasian country of some 4 million people follows a strict policy of isolation toward Taiwan, with Tbilisi refusing to recognize Taiwanese passports, making it the only government in the world to refuse entry to the island’s citizens.
This trend has accelerated in recent years as successive Georgian Dream-led governments have allowed China to expand its footprint in the country. Bilateral ties reached a new level in July when Beijing and Tbilisi signed a strategic-partnership agreement. Through that deal, China included Georgia in an assortment of global initiatives and promised it preferential bank loans for large-scale infrastructure projects in return.
These developments haven’t gone unnoticed in Taipei, where Foreign Minister Joseph Wu called on Tbilisi to ease admission policies toward Taiwanese citizens, though Wu says Georgia has rebuffed his efforts to establish any formal communication.
“We have no practical, substantive, or real relations with Georgia,” Wu told RFE/RL’s Georgian Service. “We have repeatedly tried to [communicate] with the help of business leaders or through other channels, but the Georgian government won’t engage with Taiwan.”
While only 12 countries and the Vatican have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, many others have vibrant, informal ties with Taipei, allowing the island to operate so-called economic and cultural offices that perform functions similar to those of an embassy or consulate.
Many Western governments have also stepped up their engagement and support of Taipei in recent years in the face of growing Chinese pressure on Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory.
This has included warnings from leading officials like European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock against China using force or putting pressure on the island.
Despite concern over democratic backsliding and high-level corruption in Georgia, Tbilisi received candidate status from Brussels in December and now faces a number of tests to get closer to the EU’s common foreign and security policy, including its relationship with China.
Georgia’s stance toward Beijing adds another wrinkle to its newfound bid for EU membership and risks leaving it as an outlier amid Taiwan’s high-stakes elections on January 13, about which Taipei raised the alarm over what it says is a concerted effort by China to sway the vote toward Beijing-preferred candidates and parties.
“Taiwan is taking measures to counter China's interference and is documenting its experiences. Analysis will be published soon after the elections in consultation with international experts,” Wu wrote in The Economist on January 3.
An Evolving Line On Taiwan
Taiwanese Vice President Lai Ching-te, who serves under President Tsai Ing-wen and is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), holds a narrow lead in the presidential race.
He’s running against Hou Yu-ih from Kuomintang (KMT), the largest opposition party that has traditionally favored close ties with China but denies being pro-Beijing. Ko Wen-je, the former mayor of the capital, Taipei, is also running as a third candidate for his self-founded Taiwan People’s Party (TPP).
Bitter disputes in Taipei on how to handle relations with China and avoid conflict are dominating the final stretch of the campaign for the self-governing island of 23 million, and Lai’s election could lead to even greater tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
Lai is strongly opposed to the Chinese Communist Party, and while he’s said he won’t call for formal Taiwanese independence, he’s also said Taiwan’s sovereignty is “a fact.” China has stepped up its rhetoric ahead of the election, and many analysts believe a Lai victory could prompt aggressive moves by Beijing, which has criticized Lai as a secessionist.
Most top Chinese officials have avoided commenting on the elections, but Chinese leader Xi Jinping used his New Year’s Eve address to say that Beijing’s “reunification” with Taiwan was inevitable.
Taiwanese officials reject Chinese rhetoric over “reunification.”
Taiwan and China split in 1949 following a civil war between the Communist-led People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China government that became based in Taipei, with the Chinese Communist Party never controlling Taiwan. Beijing views the island as a rogue province and aims to bring it under its control, ideally peacefully, though it does not rule out force.
Taipei maintained official seats for China at major global bodies like the United Nations in the decades following the war, but from the 1970s onward most countries switched to recognizing Beijing instead of Taipei, leaving Taiwan with few formal friends as China's political and economic power expanded globally.
It’s against this backdrop that Georgia has taken its staunchly pro-Beijing position.
Many Western governments, including the United States and EU countries, do not openly contest China's claim to Taiwan, but they also do not support it. This purposefully vague policy on Taiwan’s status is often characterized as the One China Policy.
In Washington’s case, it remains Taiwan’s most significant international supporter and is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself, despite having official ties with Beijing, not Taipei.
In contrast, Beijing espouses what it refers to as a “One China principle” in which it asserts that it is the only legitimate government and that it maintains sovereignty over Taiwan.
Tbilisi And Taipei
It’s this more pro-Beijing interpretation that Tbilisi has embraced.
Irakli Sirbiladze, a nonresident fellow at the German Marshall Fund, told RFE/RL that Georgia has done this in order to court more investment and generate interest in the Middle Corridor, a transcontinental trade route connecting Europe and China, a project in which Georgia plays a crucial role.
He adds that the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, breakaway Georgian regions occupied by Russia that have declared independence, are also a factor.
Beijing and the vast majority of the international community do not recognize the two entities and Georgia hopes that by maintaining zero relations with Taiwan that China can provide some form of moderation and be a diplomatic bulwark against the Russian-backed areas receiving further recognition.
Sergi Kapanadze, a Georgian politician who was deputy foreign minister from 2011 to 2012 as part of a government led by the United National Movement party, said concerns over Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been a leading factor for Tbilisi’s isolation from Taiwan even before the series of Georgian Dream-led governments deepened ties with China.
“The main risk was this: if you accept the Taiwanese passport, then [Beijing] may recognize the so-called Abkhaz passport,” he told RFE/RL. “Personally, I have always opposed the recognition of passports, the entry of Taiwanese, and the liberalization of this issue because it could do more harm than good to Georgia.”
This policy looks set to continue for Georgia well past the upcoming Taiwanese elections and as Tbilisi pursues EU membership.
In response to a question from RFE/RL about the government’s approach toward Taiwanese citizens, Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili said there are no plans for it to change.
“[Georgia] has a very clear position on the issues that concern China and Taiwan,” he said. “We have a very dynamic relationship with the People’s Republic of China.”
