Chapter 1 Introduction
1.5 Research Limitations
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1.5 Research Limitations
This thesis is by no means exhaustive. Surveys were designed to gather qualitative and quantitative data on the CARICOM diaspora’s perceptions of their presence in Taiwan and their interest and willingness to be involved in engagement strategies. Though these surveys provided a quantitative and qualitative input to this research, a more in-depth follow up study would be suggested for future research on this topic
Literature on the role of the Diaspora in CARICOM policy is not as abundant as would have been expected, especially in relation to Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific. In designing a policy geared towards a non-Western country and region, a lot of factors need to be taken into consideration. For a CARICOM-Asia-Pacific culture-based diaspora policy to be considered plausible, various factors that may have gone unnoticed in this study would need to be further researched and addressed.
Restricted to Taiwan, the study does not incorporate contributions from the CARICOM diaspora in Japan, South Korea and China. Inclusion of data from these countries would provide a more all-encompassing image as to the plausibility and effectiveness of the proposal being put forward.
It would also have proven interesting to compare the culture-based and diaspora policies of the member states of the Caribbean Community and other SIDS regional blocs such as the Pacific Island Forum. In so doing, additional evidence to support the argument that SIDS regional blocs can benefit from collective culture-based and diaspora-based approaches could be further reinforced.
It is hoped that future research will be able to explore the communities in these countries and ultimately combine the studies into a formal document.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Strength in Many: SIDS and Regional Blocs
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 recognized Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as a distinct group of nations with peculiar characteristics that warrants special consideration and assistance (Bass: Clayton, 1995). Though not unanimously accepted, the definition of SIDS includes the following characteristics: size, remoteness, vulnerability to external shocks, narrow resource base, and exposure to global environmental challenges2.
The Barbados Programme of Action (1992) and the Mauritius Strategy of Implementation (2008) echoed the complexity of the situation faced by 38 UN-recognized island states across the Caribbean, Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Asia-Pacific region3. These challenges include, but are not limited to problems and disparities caused by increased globalization, trade liberalization benefits, and depletion of natural resources. The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) serves as the main all-encompassing negotiating body that also includes non-UN recognized territories. Other international bodies of which SIDS are members includes the Commonwealth of Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the African Caribbean Pacific Group of States (ACP).
In addition to CARICOM (Caribbean Community), other regional blocs such as the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the Pacific Island Forum (PIF) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) serve as specific hubs for cooperation and integration among SIDS, based on their geographic location.
The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States is a sub-regional bloc consisting of nine member states in the English speaking Eastern Caribbean. The Organization was
2Definition of SIDS is derived from the Developing States Network, About Us. http://www.sidsnet.org/
3 Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, UN-Documents, http://www.un-documents.net/sids-act.htm
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established to promote cooperation on defense issues, international diplomacy and economic policies. Six of the OECS member states namely, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda are also members of CARICOM.
The Pacific Island Forum is an inter-governmental organization that acts as the collective body of 16 independent nation states. Founded in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum, the PIF seeks to effectively implement executive decisions that are in the best interest of the people in the Pacific. The organization’s goals include strengthening regional cooperation and integration, policy formation and enhancing the political governance and security for the region4.
Due to their unique situations, SIDS and their respective regional groupings have focused on (and continue to focus on) developing policies and strategies aimed at addressing their individual and collective challenges and needs.
With the current global shift towards the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan, China, Japan and South Korea (for example) have been increasingly reaching out to lesser developed nations in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Japan conducts negotiations with CARICOM as a bloc as well as bilaterally. These efforts include tailored strategies based on the needs and circumstances of target nation states, and/or collective approaches based on the goals of regional organizations. Most of these efforts have been made in the area of climate change and sustainable development, information technology, infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries and marine resources.
In light of the aforementioned challenges affecting small-island developing states, their foreign policies have been designed and implemented to compensate for such limitations by relying on cooperation with intra-regional actors with like challenges, and by seeking assistance from more developed extra-regional nations.
4About Us, The Pacific Island Forum General Secretariat, http://www.forumsec.org/
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Discourse on the most effective approaches to small-island state foreign policy includes multilateralism, regionalism and bilateralism. Keohane (1990) defines multilateralism as the coordination of policies by three or more countries via institutions or makeshift arrangements. Regionalism stresses the importance of the collective unit and involves formal, informal, institutional and non-institutional relations among countries of the same geographic grouping (Riedel, 2004). This thesis argues for multilateralism as the most suitable approach via the CARICOM diaspora in Taiwan and by extension, the Asia-Pacific. First, an introduction to CARICOM and its relations to the Asia-Pacific will be presented.
2.2 CARICOM: The Caribbean Community
Girvan echoes the importance of stating the context within which the definition of the Caribbean region should be framed (Girvan, 2001). In answering the question ‘What is the Caribbean?’ the author illustrates the concept of “Many Caribbeans” based on several interpretations according to their ethno-historical, geo-political, geo-economic or neo-colonial peculiarities as seen in the table below.
Table 2. Definitions of “Many Caribbeans”
Source: Girvan, Norman, Reinterpreting the Caribbean, (UWI Press 2001), p. 2
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This paper will adopt the ‘Caribbean of CARICOM’ definition of the region.
Brief History of the Caribbean Community
CARICOM first came into existence in 1973 through the Treaty of Chaguaramas signed in Trinidad and Tobago. It was the transformation of the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement (CARIFTA) of 1968. But its origins began a decade earlier.
The West Indies Federation of 1958 was the Caribbean’s first attempt at regional integration. Birthed from the Caribbean Federation Act two years prior, the West Indies Federation initially consisted of British Caribbean territories: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, the then St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago that had not yet gained independence from England and relied heavily on agricultural–based economies (CARICOM, 2011).
During the British colonial era, Caribbean countries were prime exporters of agricultural related products (sugarcane, molasses, bananas, tobacco and cotton) to Britain and the United States. This continued through to the late 19th Century and early 20th Century with the mining of bauxite taking over during the 1980s. Even as each country became independent during the mid-late 20th Century, agriculture was still regarded as the primary form of economic sustenance for the region.
However, the Federation’s main focus was to establish a collective political alliance among the ten territories rather than engage in economic integration. Free Trade among these territories was not an avenue that was considered during the Federation’s four year life-span (CARICOM, 2011). In the same spirit of cooperation that was present during the final days of the West Indies Federation, the British Caribbean then sought to include the South American territory of Guyana and the Central American territory of Belize.
However, when Trinidad & Tobago gained independence in 1960 with Jamaica following their lead in 1961, the eventual dissolution of the West Indies Federation helped to create the structure of what CARICOM is today (CARICOM, 2011).
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2.3 Overview of CARICOM-Asia-Pacific Relations
The dissolution of the West Indies Federation and the gradual movement of the countries into independence gave them full control over their international affairs and the ability to enter into bilateral and multilateral relations with other countries.
The Caribbean Community’s connection with the Asia-Pacific was initially set within the parameters of the Commonwealth of Nations, formerly known as the British
Commonwealth. Relations were limited based on a shared history of British colonization, along with ethno-historic ties represented by migrants who came to the region. The latter set the premise for cultural and diplomatic ties to be established between specific
CARICOM states and their counterparts in the Asia-Pacific.
By the 1980s, the emergence of new economies in the Asia-Pacific (including Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea among others) along with the increasing number of newly independent states and regional hubs in the Caribbean, the ensuing environment became conducive (particularly from CARICOM’s end) to pursue further relations with the Asia-Pacific politically, diplomatically and economically.
With regards to global trade and commercial interaction with the Caribbean region in 2013, the region’s top two major trading partners were the United States and the
European Union respectively. The majority of trade was done in agriculture, mining and fuels, as well as the manufacturing sectors. In that same year China, Japan and South Korea listed among the Caribbean region’s top 10 major trading partners. China and Japan are placed in the top 10 with the United States and Europe being the region’s top trading partners. China, Japan and South Korea combined, account for almost 10% of major trade with the Caribbean (European Commission 2013).
Trade between CARICOM states and the Asia-Pacific during the mid-1990s was notably inconsistent and saw more products being imported by CARICOM states compared to products being exported to Japan, Taiwan, China, ASEAN and Korea. In light of the lack of natural resources and large-scale manufacturing facilities, what CARICOM states could not make up for economically was counteracted by earnest diplomatic efforts.
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Soon, high level visits between CARICOM member states and countries in the Asia-Pacific began to take place.
In May 2013, China’s President Xi Jinping, in his first visit to the Caribbean, met with leaders of the nine CARICOM nations that adhere to the PRC’s ‘One China Policy’.
Within three months of President Xi’s official visit, President Ma Ying-Jeou of Taiwan embarked on his first diplomatic visit to the region, touring Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Haiti and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines5. In July 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with CARICOM leaders at the first Japan-CARICOM Summit in Trinidad and Tobago (Jamaica Information Services, 2014). In October 2014, the fourth High-level Forum on the Korea-Caribbean Partnership was held under the theme “Enhancing the Korea-Caribbean Partnership for Co-Prosperity” (Korea.net, 2014). These occurrences within such a short space of time from each other point to Asia-Pacific’s increasing interest in the region.
Yet, the Caribbean’s relations with the Asia-Pacific run deeper. Haiti and Suriname fought alongside South Korea during the Korean War, and centuries of migration of Chinese labourers to the Caribbean also added to the region’s identity through the presence of the Chinese-Caribbean community.
2.3.1 Diaspora Heritage: The Connecting Factor between the East and West Following the abolition of the slave trade in 1838, plantation owners, (fearing loss of profit and status) were desperate to find alternative sources of labor. In an attempt to salvage the plantation economies, a system of indentured labor was used which saw relatively large movements of Chinese immigrants from Shantou, Guangzhou, Penang and Xiamen taking the six-month journey by ship to the colonies. In total, 20,000
Chinese were eventually brought over to Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago with the largest numbers being recorded between 1853 and 1866 (Misrahi-Barak, 2012).This
5 CNA, China Post, President Ma Ying-Jeou departs for visit to Paraguay and Caribbean Allies, 2013
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ethno-historic narrative, in addition to the presence of Indo-Caribbean and Javanese-Surinamese (that also resulted from indentured labour in the Caribbean) highlight the often overlooked, yet deeply-rooted connections between the Caribbean region and the Asia-Pacific.
In recent years, Japan, China and Taiwan have been expanding their diplomatic relations sphere to the lesser developed states in the Western hemisphere. The following section provides a brief insight into Japanese, Chinese and Taiwanese foreign policy and diplomacy and how their policies relate to CARICOM.
2.3.2 CARICOM-Japan Relations
The history of Japanese diplomacy stems from the post-World War II era in an attempt to salvage and to subsequently change its national image (Potter, 2009). It has since gone through several transformations and revisions. Throughout the periods of transformation, Japan’s diplomacy strategies were tailored to suit regional, bilateral and multilateral environments. With specific regard to its approach to small-island developing states, Japan, as a significant international player, has been able to cement relations with island nations on an individual and collective basis.
Japan’s relationship with CARICOM states spans decades. The earliest of these relations was established in 1964 with Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica (MOFA Japan, 2014).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan documented that the total population of CARICOM nationals living in the country as of July 2014 was 714. The population of Jamaican nationals in Japan by July 2014 alone had already exceeded the total population of CARICOM nationals in Taiwan by April 2015. Formal relations between Japan and CARICOM (as a collective) began in 1994 and have since 2002 been elevated to a more official level with the commencement of the Japan-CARICOM Ministerial Conferences.
The Fourth Japan-CARICOM Ministerial Conference in November 2014 came on the heels of the first Japan-CARICOM Summit in July 2014 which was held in Trinidad and
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Tobago. Prior to 2014, Japan's bilateral assistance to the region focused mostly on capacity building and institutional building in fisheries. In return, countries in the OECS sub-region in particular supported Japan's position within the International Whaling Commission. Co-chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe it was at this summit that the three pillars of Japan’s CARICOM Policies were introduced (MOFA Japan, 2014).
Japan’s CARICOM Policies according to these three pillars are (i) Cooperation towards sustainable development, including overcoming the vulnerabilities particular to small island states, (ii) Deepening and expanding fraternal bonds of cooperation and friendship and (iii) Cooperation in addressing challenges of the international community (MOFA Japan, 2014).
The second pillar in particular takes into consideration the role of multi-level cultural and educational exchanges that involve the public and private sectors with the important goal of “enhance[ing] mutual understanding and strengthen[ing] the bonds of
friendship”(MOFA Japan, 2014). Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, reiterated the importance of such measures; pledging the Japanese government’s support for further cooperation in several areas which include (but are not limited to) continued assistance in, and promotion of Japanese language education at the University of the West Indies, sports, tourism, business and ICT ventures, and the continued funding and promotion of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme (which aims at promoting and fostering grass-roots international exchanges between Japan and other nations).
Prime Minister Abe also noted the need to establish more embassies throughout CARICOM states which would allow individual relations between Japan and its CARICOM partners to be more fruitful and uninhibited by distance. At present, only 3 out of the 15 CARICOM member states have diplomatic missions and consulates in Japan.
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China’s foreign policy approach to small-island states and other developing states
includes assisting in the advancement of lesser developed countries in a spirit of goodwill and continued cooperation. Added to the political agenda explicitly expressed via the
‘One China Policy’, China’s interest in the lesser developed states of the Asian, African, Latin American and Caribbean region has increased.
The People’s Republic of China has established diplomatic relations with nine CARICOM countries namely Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Dominica, Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname, Antigua and Barbuda and The Bahamas. The earliest of these ties was established in 1972 between China and Guyana. China has similarly provided monetary assistance to various developmental projects across educational, economic, agricultural and technological categories. The Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance estimates that China has provided close to US$86 billion dollars in
development assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean from 2005 to the first half of 2013 (China-Caribbean Relationship, CCMF, 2013). China is also a member of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank6.
The three main goals of relations between China, Latin America and the Caribbean were stated by former Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2004. These goals include: (i)
strengthening strategic ties and enhancing mutual political trust, (ii) taking practical and creative steps to tap the potential for economic cooperation, (3) attaching greater
importance to cultural exchanges to deepen mutual understanding (Bliss, 2010).
Cultural Diplomacy as a facet of China’s foreign policy gained particular relevance in 2012 and 2013 as it constituted the third pillar of Chinese Diplomacy. “Cultural diplomacy and soft power are important strategies for the Chinese leadership in developing benign impressions about China and securing strategic dividends through
6Thompson, Fontaine, China Invests billions in the Caribbean while Washington looks on,
(TheDominican.net), 2013 http://thedominican.net/2013/06/china-invests-billions-in-caribbean.html
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‘virtuous’ policies of engagement”(Palit, 2014). The establishment of Confucius Institutes have aided in promoting China’s cultural diplomacy by bridging academic components and the urge for international dialogue among its neighbours. As of July 2015, all campuses of The University of the West Indies house a Confucius Institute where the curriculum comprises Mandarin Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Tai chi and Chinese film.
2.3.4 CARICOM and Taiwan Relations
Taiwan has established diplomatic relations with 5 CARICOM nations namely, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Belize. Haiti was the first country to establish diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1956.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China on Taiwan refers to Article 141 of the Constitution of Taiwan as a summary of its foreign policy goals:
“…in a spirit of independence and initiative and on the basis of the principles of equality and reciprocity, cultivate good-neighborliness with other nations, and respect treaties and the Charter of the United Nations, in order to protect the rights and interests of Chinese citizens residing abroad, promote international cooperation, advance international justice and ensure world peace.” (MOFA Taiwan, Article 141)
Under the Ma Ying Jiu Administration, Taiwan’s Diplomatic approach to its neighbours in the international community centers round the concept of viable diplomacy or flexible diplomacy. Viable Diplomacy is defined as a compromise that allows Taiwan to continue its diplomatic efforts, while still retaining and maintaining ties with China. It continues to
Under the Ma Ying Jiu Administration, Taiwan’s Diplomatic approach to its neighbours in the international community centers round the concept of viable diplomacy or flexible diplomacy. Viable Diplomacy is defined as a compromise that allows Taiwan to continue its diplomatic efforts, while still retaining and maintaining ties with China. It continues to