從經貿外交角度探討臺灣與斯洛伐克的雙邊關係（1993-2003年） - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學國家發展研究所 Graduate Institute of Development Studies College of Social Sciences National Chengchi University. 碩士論文. 政治大立Master's Thesis. ‧ 國. 學 ‧. 從經貿外交角度探討臺灣與斯洛伐克的 sit. y. Nat. 雙邊關係（1993-2003 年） er. io. A Study of Taiwan-Slovakia Relations (1993-2003). a. n. v l C of Economic from the Perspective n i Diplomacy hengchi U. Student: Eunika Rejtova Advisor: Mei-Chuan Wei, Ph. D. 中華民國 109 年 5 月 May 2020 I DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Mei-Chuan Wei for all her help and guidance throughout the entire process of writing of this thesis. She has been extremely supportive and has devoted herself to providing me with constructive feedback. My thesis would never be at the level I wanted it to be at without Dr. Wei. I also would like to extend my warmest gratitude toward my committee members, Dr. Wei and Prof. Yang for their insightful suggestions. Deep thanks go as well to the current head of the SECO, Mr. Podstavek and to the president of the SlovakTaiwanese Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Štefanec as well as to high ranking Taiwanese. 政治大. officials, who provided me with valuable information about Slovak-Taiwanese relations. Without them, this thesis would never be completed.. 立. I would also like to especially thank my family and friends for always being my. ‧ 國. 學. support system despite the distance between us. Lastly, I would like to thank Akuan for inspiring and always encouraging me to keep working hard.. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. II DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(3) ABSTRACT This thesis seeks to provide an account of the relations between Taiwan and Slovakia before the opening of the representative offices with a special emphasis on the reasons that made Slovakia being one of the last countries in Central Europe to institutionalize its substantial relations with Taiwan. Given Slovakia‟s official relations with China and the „one China‟ policy to which Slovakia adheres, any relations with Taiwan are possible exclusively on the informal level. Taiwan establishes this kind of relationship with China‟s diplomatic allies through the so-called „informal‟ diplomacy. One tool of the informal diplomacy that had been adopted by Taiwan on Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s is the economic diplomacy. In order to identify the reasons. 政治大 thesis aimed first to evaluate the degree of influence of Taiwan‟s economic diplomacy 立 on Slovakia in the 1990s and then find out whether this resulted in an asymmetrical behind the delay of the opening of the mutual offices, the analytical framework of the. ‧ 國. 學. dependent relationship with Slovakia. The research revealed that although Taiwan had made efforts since the 1990s to establish relationship with all Central European. ‧. countries, its economic diplomacy with Slovakia did not appear to be effective. y. Nat. primarily due to the country's domestic politics until the time of early 2000s. The. sit. domestic politics were thus identified as the most influential factor for explaining the. er. io. delay of the opening of the representative offices. The different approaches of the two. al. v i n Cserving Mečiar‟s government and „politics under Dzurinda‟s administration h e neconomy‟ gchi U n. administrations that led Slovakia in the 1990s – „economy serving politics‟ under - determined the country‟s foreign policy, economic reforms and its attitude towards Taiwan‟s economic diplomacy. This thesis suggests a model of the bilateral relations that could help to understand the possible patterns of Taiwan‟s substantial relations with other countries built through the economic diplomacy.. Keywords: Slovakia, Taiwan, Central Europe, substantial relations, economic diplomacy, representative offices. III DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(4) 摘. 要. 本文旨在從經貿外交的角度探討臺灣在斯洛伐克設立代表處之前的兩國關係，特別著重於討論斯洛伐克作為中歐最後一個與臺灣建立實質關係國家的原因為何。由於斯洛伐克與中國的官方關係，以及斯洛伐克對「一個中國」政策的堅持，與臺灣建立任何關係都僅止於非正式層面。臺灣採取所謂「非正式外交」方式與中國的盟友建立實質關係，而經貿外交則是臺灣於 1990 年代與中歐和東歐採取的非正式外交手段之一。為確認臺灣辦事處延遲設立之因，本文的分析框架為先評估 1990 年代臺灣經貿外交對斯洛伐克的影響程度，然後探討是否因此導致雙方之間出現「不對稱互賴性關係」。本研究結果顯示，儘管臺灣自 1990 年代以來持續努力與所有中歐國家建立關係，但其與斯洛伐克的經貿外交似乎直到 2000 年代初才因為該國的國內政治變化而出現成效。據此，本研究認. 政治大. 為斯洛伐克國內政治為臺灣代表處延遲設立的主要因素；1990 年代斯洛伐克政府的兩個領導者對經濟發展採取不同的方針：Meciar 的「經濟服務政治」和 Dzurinda 的「政治服務經濟」，不同了方針因此決定了該國的外交政策、經濟改革及其對臺灣經貿外交的立場。本論文從經貿外交角度出發，以臺灣代表處延遲設立為例探討 1993-2003 臺灣與斯洛伐克外交關係所進行之研究的結果顯示，. 立. ‧ 國. 學. ‧. 國內政治為影響臺灣經貿外交成效的重要因素，但在國際現實條件下，透過加強經貿關係仍為臺灣與他國建立實質性關係的重要雙邊關係模式。. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. 關鍵字：斯洛伐克、台灣、中歐、實質關係、經貿外交、代表處。. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. IV DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(5) Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. II. ABSTRACT. III. Contents. V. 1.. 7. Introduction 1.1. Research Background. 1.2. Research Motivation and Purpose. 11. 1.3. Research Question. 12. 1.4. Research Method. 12. 1.4.1. Qualitative method. 1.4.2. Interview Arrangement. 1.5. Chapters Structure. 14 15 16. ‧ 國. 學. 18. 2.1. Taiwan’s foreign policy: from ‘anti-communist’ to ‘flexible’ diplomacy. 18. 2.2. Taiwan’s relations with Central Europe and Slovakia. 2.3. Economic diplomacy. ‧. 20. 2.4. Analytical Framework. y. Literature Review. 31. sit. 23 36. er. io. The almost non-existent Slovak-Taiwanese Relations (1993-2003) 3.1. Economic cooperation between Taiwan and Slovakia (1993-2003). 36. 3.2. Taiwan’s economic assistance to Slovakia (1993-2003). n U engchi The absence of favorable conditions. 38. al. n. 3.3. Ch. iv. 39. 3.3.1. Slovakia’s domestic politics (1993-2003). 40. 3.3.2. Slovakia’s EU membership (1993-2003). 44. 3.3.4. The China factor (1993-2003). 47. 3.4 4.. 政治大. Nat. 3.. 12. 立 Research limitations and contributions. 1.6 2.. 7. Summary. 49. Convergence of Slovakia’s and Taiwan’s Interests. 52. 4.1. Slovakia’s economic awakening. 53. 4.2. EU membership: In favor of rapprochement. 58. 4.3. The Slovakian (delayed) model of relations with Taiwan. 59. 4.4 Development of Slovak-Taiwanese relations after the opening of the representative offices. 61. 4.5. 68. Summary V. DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(6) 5.. Conclusion. 69. Interviewees’ responses. 73. References. 83. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. VI DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(7) 1. 1.1. Introduction Research Background. Prior to beginning a discussion about Republic of China‟s (hereafter ROC or Taiwan) relations with Slovakia, it is important to give an initial background account of Taiwan and its foreign policy making. To understand how this one works we have to put Taiwan in the cross-strait relations context. The position of Taiwan in the international sphere has largely been influenced. 政治大 or China). In the so-called 'cross-strait relations', the 'one China' policy (一個中國政立策) and 'one China' principle (一個中國原則) are two core concepts that need to be by its complicated relationship with the People‟s Republic of China (hereafter “PRC”. ‧ 國. 學. mentioned. The 'one China' principle is directly linked to the retreat of the defeated Chinese nationalists to the island of Taiwan and the emergence of the communist. ‧. PRC in 1949. The principle began immediately to work as a condition of the newly-. sit. y. Nat. formed communist government in gaining legitimacy and establishing diplomatic relations. Based on this principle, Taiwan was defined as part of the territory of China,. io. n. al. er. of which the only legitimate government is the government of the PRC. Thenceforth,. i Un. v. countries wishing to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing are expected to adhere. Ch. engchi. to this principle and cut relations with or refrain from recognizing the Republic of China on Taiwan as a sovereign state (The Taiwan Affairs Office and the Information Office of the State Council). What safeguarded Taiwan‟s international position from 1949 to 1970, when Taiwan especially suffered some diplomatic setbacks, was the military alliance of the US (Mengin, 1998). However, ever since the UN resolution in 1971 replaced the ROC with the PRC as a permanent member of the Security Council in the United Nations and recognized the PRC as the only legitimate government of China, Taiwan's international space has been reduced drastically. Despite being democratic and despite being one of the world's largest economy, Taiwan is currently officially recognized. 7 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(8) only by 15 small countries. 1 With the exception of the Holy See (Vatican City), which is Taiwan's only European ally, current Taiwan's diplomatic allies have been mostly small or impoverished countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and South Pacific. Despite their small size and less developed economies, diplomatic relationships with these allies provide valuable formal recognition of Taiwan's sovereignty. Taiwan‟s allies speak for it in international organizations and give Taiwanese officials the opportunity to make transit visits from the Caribbean to the United States and Washington, where they would not ordinarily be able to go because of Washington's 'one China' policy (Larus, 2008). Moreover, Taiwan benefits to a high degree also from trade and cultural relationships with internationally significant players such as the USA, Japan,. 政治大. Singapore, Australia, India, Canada, the EU and many others that sustain Taiwan's ability to function as a state. The impact and support of these countries is also. 立. significant for Taiwan in terms of participation in international organizations such as. ‧ 國. 學. the WHO and ICAO (The Diplomat, 2016), from which Taiwan was excluded on the basis of Beijing's uncompromising attitude to 'one China' policy (Focus Taiwan,. ‧. 2018).. sit. y. Nat. In other words, with China's growing leverage in a world, where the majority of countries recognizes the PRC as the only representation of the whole China,. io. n. al. er. Taiwan's foreign policy making is rather limited. However, this does not mean. i Un. v. Taiwan's foreign policy is without resources. “If formal relationships are not possible,. Ch. engchi. 'informal', 'substantive' or 'virtual' ties serve as an excellent substitute” (Hickey, 2007). To advance its political and diplomatic interests, Taiwan can rely on several alternative foreign policy methods. One of these is the so-called 'economic diplomacy' that can be defined as influence attempts of a state that rely essentially on “resources which have a reasonable semblance of a market price in terms of money” (Baldwin, 1985). Economic diplomacy was adopted by Taiwan in Central Europe for the first time in the 1990s. Slovakia belongs to this region as well.. 1. The current diplomatic allies of Taiwan are Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Marshall. Islands, Nauru, Nicaragua, Palau, Paraguay, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Swaziland and Tuvalu.. 8 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(9) In case of Taiwan and Slovakia we thus obviously talk about relations of informal character, which is the result of the official diplomatic relations that exist between Slovakia and China. Slovakia‟s relations with Taiwan therefore consist mostly of economic interactions, but active cooperation exists also in areas such as culture, education and science. Most of these activities are carried out thanks to the Slovak Economic and Cultural Office Taipei (SECO Taipei) and Taipei Representative Office, Bratislava (TROB) established in 2003. The origin of relations between the ROC and Slovakia can be traced back to the end of the WWI, when the ROC on mainland recognized the Czechoslovak Legion as a proper Czechoslovak army by the so-called Vladivostok declaration (1918) and thus granted Czechoslovakia (one of the successor states of the AustroHungarian monarchy) its de facto official recognition (Bakešová, 1997). Following. 政治大. this event, the two countries established official diplomatic relations. However, due to. 立. the communist environment in Central Europe in the fifties, then communist. ‧ 國. 學. Czechoslovakia was among the first countries in 1949 that recognized the new PRC government and thus renounced its relations with the Kuomintang government.. ‧. The relations between Czechoslovakia and Taiwan were reanimated in late. sit. y. Nat. 1980s, when the then President of Taiwan Lee Teng-hui 李登輝 adopted his foreign. io. er. policy strategy - the so-called 'flexible diplomacy' (彈性外交). As Hickey (2007) points out, flexible diplomacy's main agenda focused on “1) the advancement and. n. al. Ch. i Un. v. reinforcement of formal diplomatic ties; 2) the development of substantive relations. engchi. with countries that do not maintain formal relations with Taiwan; 3) admission or readmission to international organizations and activities vital to the country's national interests.” This agenda was built on a major change in Taiwan's foreign policy approach towards the 'one China' principle, i.e. Taiwan accepted the idea of dual recognition that would allow Taipei and Beijing simultaneously engage in diplomatic relations with the same states. Moreover, the implementation of the new foreign policy strategy was favored by several external factors. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the importance of China has scaled down and was further undermined in the 1989 with the Tian'an Men event. By contrast, Taiwan's democratic development and the economic miracle that the island experienced all contributed to its positive reputation (Tubilewicz, 2007).. 9 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(10) Taiwan's democratization and its gradual abandonment of the ideological preconditions in seeking international support created a favorable environment for a reciprocal relationship between Taiwan and the post-communist governments of Central European countries. Given the desperate need of economic assistance, the region in Central Europe seemed an especially ideal target for Taiwan to use its economic diplomacy in exchange of ties be it diplomatic or 'substantive' (Tubilewicz, 2007). Taiwan targeted Central European post-communist countries with promises of investments, humanitarian relief, grants and loans, which were warmly welcomed in the region. The countries, stimulated by the prospects of economic help, agreed to „consolidate their friendship‟ with Taiwan by opening representative offices (Tubilewicz, 2007). As a result, Hungary opened its ROC's representative office in 1990, followed by Czechoslovakia in 1991 and Poland in 1992 (Szczudlik –Tatar, 2013).. 立. 政治大. Former Czechoslovakia was one of the countries in the region that initiated. ‧ 國. 學. with the ROC relatively intense interactions. Taipei representative office opened in Prague in 1991 as a result of warm relations based on the same ideological sentiments. ‧. and public support for Taiwan promoted by President Václav Havel2. Considering the. y. Nat. friendly dialogue initiated in the previous years and the atmosphere of a freshly. sit. installed democracy, Slovakia as one of the successor state3 of Czechoslovakia could. er. io. have built on a well-laid foundation of bilateral relations. However, after the split of. al. n. v i n C h the last country pattern. Slovakia was e n g c h i U among the post-communist. Czechoslovakia in 1993, the evolution of Slovak-Taiwanese relations followed a rather different. Central European countries to open its representative office (2003) and was the 19th European country to do so. The reason for this delay in respect to other countries in the region is the limelight of this thesis. The reasons for limiting the study focus on the territory of Slovakia are threefold. First, there are several publications on Slovakia‟s relations with China, yet 2. The relations between the Czech Republic and Taiwan are still characterized by a warm. atmosphere. The recent signing of a sister city agreement between Taipei and Prague only proves this. 3. After the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia in 1993, independent Slovakia succeeded in the basic. bilateral and multilateral contractual agreements of Czechoslovakia and foreign relations.. 10 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(11) the Slovak literature dedicated to Taiwan and its relations with Slovakia are scarce. This thesis thus could partially fill in the gap on this topic. Second, the research on economic diplomacy in Slovakia might unveil specifics that could be applicable for economic diplomacy in other countries with similar geographical and cultural distance. Third, the country was also selected in order to utilize resources and knowledge acquired during my bachelor study in Slovakia, where my research on Slovak-Taiwanese relations has commenced.. 1.2. Research Motivation and Purpose. 政治大. The backdrop of this thesis comes from a personal curiosity in SlovakTaiwanese relations. Having a sinology background, during my bachelor studies in. 立. Slovakia I realized how limited the literature dealing with bilateral dialogue between. ‧ 國. 學. Slovakia and Taiwan is, especially in contrast with the Czech literature on this topic. Therefore, I oriented my research question to this area and elaborated my bachelor. ‧. thesis on the Slovak-Taiwanese relations. However, given time constraint and data availability limitations, the paper covered only the period of bilateral relations starting. y. Nat. sit. from the year of the establishment of the representative offices in 2003 until 2016. er. io. when the research was carried out. Therefore the primary purpose of this thesis is to. al. provide an account of the relations between Taiwan and Slovakia before the opening. n. v i n of the institutions with a specialC emphasis on the reasons that made Slovakia being hengchi U one of the last countries in Central Europe to institutionalize its substantial relations with Taiwan. Moreover, given the non-recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state by the majority of states, this research aims to contribute to the understanding of Taiwan‟s successes and failures in establishing either diplomatic or substantial relations. The Slovakia‟s case is particularly relevant for the study of Taiwan‟s diplomatic efforts to translate economic means into political ends, i.e. Taiwan‟s economic diplomacy as a foreign diplomatic tool.. 11 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(12) 1.3. Research Question. The primary purpose of this thesis is to provide an account of the relations between Taiwan and Slovakia before the opening of the institutions with a special emphasis on the reasons that made Slovakia being one of the last countries in Central Europe to institutionalize its substantial relations with Taiwan. After the division of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Taiwan's representative office remained administered together with the office in Taipei (opened in 1993) by the Czech Republic. Slovakia opened its Taiwan representation only in 2003, which finally launched an institutionalized form of relations between the two countries. In order to understand this delay, this study attempts to answer the following main questions:. 立. How did Slovakia respond to the Taiwanese economic inducements in Central. 學. ‧ 國. •. 政治大. Europe in the 1990s? •. What were the specific reasons that led Slovakia to be the last Central-. ‧. European country to establish the representative office with Taiwan (e.g., ideological,. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. diplomatic, political, economic, etc.)?. 1.4. Research Method. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. 1.4.1 Qualitative method In order to answer this thesis‟ research questions, qualitative research was adopted. Qualitative research is believed to fit this thesis the best as it is a type of research used in social science that gathers and works with non-numerical information that are further interpreted in order to understand social phenomena that are the subject of the research. Qualitative research relies on methods such as observation and immersion, interviews, open-ended surveys, focus groups, document analysis, content analysis of visual and textual materials, and oral history (Crossman, 2019). Apart from the above mentioned methods, the qualitative research has been chosen for this thesis as it seeks to answer open-ended questions that give room for further probing 12 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(13) and help to provide an in-depth picture of the given topic. The qualitative research was also helpful to collect, organize, and interpret the textual and verbal data used for this thesis. The specific methods adopted for this thesis are interviews and document analysis. Interview is one of the most common qualitative research methods. According to Miller and Glassner (2011), qualitative interviews provide valuable accounts that enable researchers to find evidence of the phenomenon under investigation. Moreover, qualitative interviews bring insights into cultural frames, contexts and situations in which the given phenomena emerge. Qualitative interviews are conducted by researchers speaking with one or more participants. Interviews are personal and are conducted in a purely conversational method that allows open-ended. 政治大 responses, as quantitative methods do. 立. questions formulated in one‟s own words instead of choosing from provided. ‧ 國. 學. Qualitative interviews generally follow semi-structured or unstructured forms. In a typical semi-structured interview, the researcher follows a predetermined list of. ‧. questions or topics, but how and when the questions are put in discussion depends on the way the interviewee choses to respond (Edwards, Hollands, 2013). In an. y. Nat. sit. unstructured interview, the interviewer sets the conversation on a particular topic. er. io. without a formal guide, but the interview candidate is allowed to guide the. al. n. v i n structured interview and the listCofhinterviewees withUthe interview arrangement engchi. conversation. (Edwards, Hollands, 2013). This thesis adopted the method of semiis. listed at the end of this section.. As for document analysis, Corbin and Strauss (2008) explain that, it is a procedure adopted for reviewing or evaluating both printed and electronic (computerbased and Internet-transmitted) data. In order to understand, draw out meaning and acquire knowledge from documents these need to be first systematically examined and interpreted. Documents include agendas, minutes of meetings, books and brochures, diaries and journals; event programs (i.e., printed outlines); letters and memoranda, newspapers (clippings/articles), press releases, radio and television program scripts; organizational or institutional reports; survey data; and various public records. (Bowen, 2009) Document analysis generally relies on methods such as. 13 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(14) finding, selecting, appraising, and synthesizing data from the documents (Labuschagne, 2003). The secondary data analysis of this thesis was applied to the existing scholarly literature and articles on the topic. The research also made use of government documents and reports, that were acquired either from official websites of the respective. governments. and other. relevant. institutions. or through direct. communication with the authorities. Apart from these resources, the thesis also closely monitored local media websites in Slovakia and Taiwan for information on relevant activities and the diplomatic relations as a whole. 1.4.2 Interview Arrangement. 政治大 behind the lack of interactions between Taiwan and Slovakia in the 1990s. In order to 立 get a complex insight of the matter, interviews were conducted on both Taiwanese. The main purpose of the interview is to identify the attitudes and reasons. ‧ 國. 學. and Slovak side. The selection criteria for sampling interviewees were their position in the governmental structure and relevance of their work to the research topic. The. ‧. purpose was to approach former and current heads and staff of Taipei Representative. y. Nat. Office in Bratislava (TROB) and Slovak Economic and Cultural Office, Taipei. sit. (SEKO) as well as Slovak and Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs‟ (MOFA). er. io. officials that had been engaged in diplomatic dialogues with Central Europe and. al. n. v i n C hwere a valuable Usource of information for this relations, their insight and remarks engchi. Slovakia. Given their experience and personal engagement in the Slovak-Taiwanese. thesis. With the explicit request of the Taiwanese respondents, this thesis keeps anonymous their identity. The interviewees in this study include: Mr. Martin Podstavek – Current head of the Slovak Economic and Cultural Office, Taipei (SEKO), in office since 2017 Mr. Vladislav Štefanec – President of the Slovak-Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce Taiwanese high ranking MOFA official, former head of the Taipei Representative Office in Bratislava (TROB) Taiwanese high ranking MOFA official, former deputy Director at the TROB. 14 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(15) Questions addressed to the Slovak respondents: 1. In the 1990s, Taiwan targeted Central Europe with grants and investments and promoted bilateral trade relations. Did Slovakia consider the potential of entering into economic partnership with Taiwan and why? 2. Did the economic partnership with the PRC somehow affect Slovakia‟s position towards Taiwan? 3. Do you think that Slovakia‟s domestic politics might have somehow influenced the course of the Slovak-Taiwanese relations? 4. What led Slovakia to agree on the opening of the representative offices with Taiwan?. 政治大 In 1993, Slovakia emerged 立 as an independent country out of Czechoslovakia. Questions addressed to the Taiwanese respondents: 1.. ‧ 國. 學. with which Taiwan had a rather friendly and promising relationship. Did Taiwan consider initiating a dialogue with the Slovak government? What were the responses from the Slovak side?. ‧. 2. In the 1990s, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic were targeted by. sit. y. Nat. Taiwanese businessmen who sought to expand Taiwan‟s export market. On. io. er. the other hand, Slovakia‟s economic relations with Taiwan were negligible. What do you think were the aspects that made Slovakia an unattractive. al. n business partner?. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. 3. Do you think that Slovakia‟s domestic politics might have somehow influenced the course of the Slovak-Taiwanese relations? 4. What were the conditions that set for the opening of the Taipei Representative Office in Bratislava (TROB) in 2003?. 1.5. Chapters Structure The first chapter of the thesis is the Introduction. In this part, a short. background to the topic is given followed by the research motivation and purpose. The research question as well as the research method is explained in this part as well.. 15 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(16) Chapter 2 consists of literature review that introduces the most authoritative and the most relevant works to this thesis. This chapter also explains the analytical framework chosen for this research. Chapter 3 follows the analytical framework provided in Chapter 2 and is thus divided into sections based on the framework‟s main dimensions: Economic cooperation between Taiwan and Slovakia (1993-2003), Taiwan‟s economic assistance to Slovakia (1993-2003), Slovakia‟s domestic politics (1993-2003), the China‟s factor (1993-2003) and the EU membership (1993-2003). Chapter 4 contains an analysis and discussion based on the dimension of the framework found to be the most relevant when looking for the reasons behind the late opening of the diplomatic missions. The dimension is namely Slovakia‟s domestic. 政治大. politics (1993-2003). This chapter also provides a brief overview of the SlovakTaiwanese relations up to date and a discussion about future development.. 立. Finally, the Conclusion answers the research question of this thesis.. ‧ 國. 學. 1.6. Research limitations and contributions. ‧ sit. y. Nat. Although this study provides interesting insights into the development of the Slovak-Taiwanese relations in the 1990s, it is not without its limitations. Firstly, the. io. n. al. er. data collection for this research met with the problem of lack of availability to. i Un. v. literature needed. The information and data relevant for the particular topic of the. Ch. engchi. interactions between Taiwan and Slovakia before the opening of the offices are very limited. The existing literature on Taiwan‟s relations with Slovakia touches about this subject very briefly. The reason to this is mostly due to the lack of interest in the topic among the Slovak academia. Very few information were accessible online, yet this seems to be understandable given the fact that the online database of governmental institutions and online news started to be available mostly around the beginning of the 21st century. Especially difficult was to collect economy relevant data. There is a substantial lack of information on bilateral trade and investment between Taiwan and Slovakia before the latter‟s accession to the EU. Moreover, the methodologies applied in producing statistical information of this type have not been consistent. Given the 16 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(17) lack of resources and researcher‟s abilities, future research should account for elaborating on the relevant statistical figures. With the hope to fill in the gap of the missing information and data, this thesis aimed to collect information from semi-structured interviews with MOFA officials and diplomatic missions‟ representatives on both Slovak and Taiwanese side. However, only several interviews were realized due to the sensitivity of the topic and various private reasons of several interviewees. Moreover, most of the interviewees were engaged in Slovak-Taiwanese relations after the opening of the representative offices, therefore the information provided about the period relevant for this research were rather limited. In addition, given a low number of the interview participants and their limiting engagement in the relations in the 1990s, the results of the interview. 政治大 the research and I am aware of the potential impact of my preconceptions and biases it 立. cannot be generalized. Lastly, I acknowledge my personal attachment to the topic of. might have had on the study.. ‧ 國. 學. Despite all the limitations, this study provides an insight about a topic highly. ‧. neglected in the Slovak academia. To be more precise, attempting to provide explanations to the delay of the opening of the representative offices between Taiwan. y. Nat. sit. and Slovakia, this thesis represents the only one on this particular subject. The. er. io. researcher hopes the thesis could contribute to a better understanding of the Slovak-. al. Taiwanese relations and at the same time provide an account on the results of. n. v i n Taiwan‟s economic diplomacy on C hthe example of aUsmall European country. The e n ancimportant h i tool for Taiwan to expand its research shows that economic diplomacy is g international relations and that in the 1990s it was successful in forging relations with Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, where a favorable economic development and a friendly political culture provided a positive response to Taiwan‟s diplomatic attempts. On the other hand, Slovakia became receptive to Taiwan‟s economic diplomacy only with the domestic stabilization and government transition that brought a new approach to the foreign policy of the country. This thesis therefore wishes to emphasize the relevance of domestic politics of small European countries and its possible effect on their approach towards Taiwan.. 17 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(18) 2. Literature Review The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the literature relevant for this thesis. As the topic on Taiwan‟s relations with other countries requires touching upon foreign policy making, the first part provides a review about this subject. The next part focuses on Taiwan‟s relations with Central Europe and Slovakia. The third section introduces literature about economic diplomacy as a concept and Taiwan‟s economic diplomacy in particular. Finally, this chapter is concluded with the analytical framework adopted for this thesis.. 政治大. 2.1 Taiwan’s foreign policy: from ‘anti-communist’ to ‘flexible’ diplomacy. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Dennis van Vrancken Hickey points out that “Taiwan's international status in the global community is complicated, unusual and perhaps even unique” (Hickey,. ‧. 2007). This makes of Taiwan's foreign policy a popular research topic, and as a. sit. y. Nat. consequence there are many studies on Taiwan's foreign policy. For this thesis, particularly relevant were publications focused on Taiwan's foreign policy making in. io. er. the period between late 1980s and 1990s.. al. n. v i n In the history of Taiwan‟sCforeign policy, relations h e n g c h i U with Central Europe were. not always a matter of course. To understand Taiwan‟s focus on Central Europe as an outcome of a new foreign policy strategy, factors influencing the policy making have. been researched. Dennis Van Vranken Hickey in his book Foreign Policy Making in Taiwan (2007) analyzes the ROC's foreign policy making from the retreat of KMT to the island of Taiwan until the government of President Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁, when the book was written. Hickey demonstrates that given Taiwan‟s difficult international position, its strategies as well as foreign policy goals, values and diplomatic instruments have been subject to numerous modifications and changes reflecting the evolution in the international sphere. That is to say, various external and internal factors have been influential on Taiwan's foreign policy making. Hickey shows many levels of analysis that influence Taiwan's foreign policy behavior, such as the 18 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(19) international system, government structure, societal forces as well as individual factors. Similarly, Timothy Ka-ying Wong in his publication The Political Economy of Taiwan's Foreign Policy (1999), points out that a regime's foreign policy making lies upon constant evaluation of internal and external political and economic changes. However, unlike Hickey, Wong examines the changes in Taiwan's foreign policy since the breaking of US-Taiwan diplomatic relations as according to him, this event triggered a sudden change in the relations across the Taiwan's Strait and Taiwan's foreign relations line-up and at the same time coincided chronologically with tumultuous changes taken place within Taiwan itself, i.e. economic restructuring and transformation from capital importation to capital exportation and its political indigenization and democratization (Wong, 1999).. 政治大 However, the major impact on Taiwan‟s foreign policy making and its outcomes is 立 generally attributed to the complex relations of Taiwan with mainland China (Wang, Indeed, many factors have been influencing Taiwan‟s foreign policy.. ‧ 國. 學. 1990; Mengin, 1998; Wong, 1999; Hickey, 2007; Tubilewicz, 2007). In her article about Foreign Policy of the Republic of China on Taiwan (1990), Wang points out. ‧. that after the KMT government retreated to Taiwan, its major political objective had. y. Nat. been to oppose/defeat the communists and recover the country on the mainland, of. sit. which the ROC claimed to be the sole legitimate representation. This kind of foreign. er. io. policy making is characterized by Wang as „traditional‟, „anti-communist‟ or even. al. n. v i n C hand focused on aUnew kind of unofficial foreign diplomacy that emerged in the 1960s engchi. „orthodox‟. It was subsequently followed by a strategy termed as „practical‟. relations relying primarily on economic, trade, civil and cultural exchanges. Up to the end of this period in 1988 4 , Taiwan did not accept any relations with communist countries or countries having diplomatic relations with China. In Wang‟s chronology, this approach changed with the so-called period of „pragmatic‟ diplomacy adopted by Lee Teng-hui. Hickey‟s (2007) classification slightly differs from Wang‟s in its perspective. Hickey choses to highlight the ROC‟s international recognition and support in the earliest stage after the retreat from the mainland, and thus he begins his chronology with the „Golden era (1950-1971)‟. This stage is subsequently contrasted by the 4. 1988 is the year of Chiang Ching-kuo‟s death.. 19 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(20) period of „diplomatic isolation (1971-1988)‟, when Taiwan engaged in the diplomatic zero-sum game with China started drastically losing its diplomatic allies. But the last period of Hickey‟s classification agrees in time and term with Wang‟s period of „pragmatic‟ diplomacy. Timothy Ka-ying Wong (1999) further identifies a fourth stage, the so-called „deepening of the pragmatic diplomacy‟ that led in the early 1990‟s from a passive non-avoidance of dual recognition with Beijing in the international community to one of actively seeking dual recognition”.. 2.2. Taiwan’s relations with Central Europe and Slovakia The evolution of Taiwan‟s foreign policy strategy from an anti-communist. 政治大. towards a flexible approach towards the communist block is particularly relevant for. 立. the Slovak-Taiwanese relations. In particular it is the abandonment of the ideological. ‧ 國. 學. principle of no coexistence with Beijing and other communist countries as it oriented Taiwan's diplomacy to the region, where Slovakia belongs – the Central Europe that. ‧. at the time was under communist influence.. In the article Promising Eldorado: Taiwan‟s Diplomatic Offensive in East. Nat. sit. y. Central Europe, 1989-1999, Tubilewicz (2000) argues that it was Washington's shift. io. er. of recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 that forced Taiwan‟s government to reasses its diplomatic strategy towards communist Europe and the same year agreed on. n. al. Ch. i Un. v. direct trade with Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Yugoslavia.. engchi. However, Tubilewicz argues that despite the legalization of direct trade, commercial relations between Taiwan and the countries form East Central Europe remained rather insignificant. Their bilateral interaction continued being limited by the region‟s commitment to China and Taiwan's ideological prejudice against communist states. As pointed out by other scholars of Taiwan‟s foreign policy mentioned above, Tubilewicz too shows that only the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo provided the space of revising Taiwan‟s diplomatic strategy towards the post-communist countries. The analysis further pays particular attention to the post-1989 developments and argues that Taiwan relied on promises of financial assistance and foreign investments in return for diplomatic recognition. In his next article called Breaking the Ice: The Origins of Taiwan's Economic Diplomacy towards the Soviet Union and its European Allies, Tubilewicz (2004) puts 20 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(21) special emphasis on Chiang Ching-kuo‟s successor President Lee Teng-hui and his „flexible‟ diplomacy. As the title of the article suggests, Tubilewicz explains how this new foreign policy strategy led Taiwan from abandoning its ideological prejudice towards a more flexible approach when seeking international support from communist countries be it in official or substantive form. This study provides the readers with a good background on the unofficial diplomatic interactions (especially economic) between the Soviet Union and its allies and shows how Taiwan gradually abandoned its cautious anti-communist policy and decided to exploit the rapid democratization and need of economic assistance of the countries to forge a relationship going beyond economic co-operation. Tubilewicz‟s (2005) article The Scrooge effect: Taiwan‟s economic diplomacy. 政治大. towards Central Europe 1988-2005 and the book called Taiwan and Post-Communist Europe, Shopping for Allies (2007) further elaborate on the „flexible‟ diplomacy and. 立. the emphasis of a close linkage between the „flexible‟ diplomacy goals and the. ‧ 國. 學. economic practices of Taiwan, i.e. economic diplomacy. In these two works, Tubilewicz provides detailed information about Taiwan‟s foreign policy strategies in. ‧. specific Central and Eastern European countries and they thus represent some of the most relevant works for this thesis. The article provides a good account of the. Nat. sit. y. relations between Taiwan and Czechoslovakia, however, when it comes to Slovak-. io. er. Taiwanese relations, the author observes that “Unlike its Czech neighbor, Slovakia did not actively seek membership of either the European Union (EU) or the North. n. al. Ch. i Un. v. Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and reoriented its foreign policy toward the. engchi. East. In this context, Premier Mečiar became a staunch ally of China and avoided communication with Taiwan.” (Tubilewicz, 2005, p. 231) While the book provides an extended analysis of the previous works, when it comes to Slovak-Taiwanese relations, the one-page sub-chapter called Slovak awakening does not provide any new information compared to the previous Tubilewicz's study. Slovakia is omitted in the five models of Taiwanese relations with post-Communist European countries that Tubilewicz (2007) in this book identifies: Hungarian ("substantive"), Latvian ("consular"), Czech ("ideological"), Russian ("geostrategic"), and Macedonian ("diplomatic"). The limited scholarly research dedicated to the bilateral relations between Taiwan and Slovakia could be generally attributed to the fact that the relations between Taiwan and Slovakia do not have a long history. On the other hand, the 21 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(22) interactions between Taiwan and the Czech Republic are considered rather fruitful therefore the literature on the topic is more abundant as well. Bakešová from the Czech academia covered the historical interactions between the ROC and Czechoslovakia in her two books, Taiwan, Different China (1992) and Czechoslovakia – China 1918-1949 (1997). The latter dates the origin of the relations to the end of the WWI and follows its dynamic cooperation in the economic sphere until the foundation of the PRC in 1949, when Czechoslovakia as an already communist country revoked relations with the ROC in favor of the new regime (Bakešová, 1997). Given the communist influence in the region and its close relations with the PRC, any relations between Taiwan and the Central Europe were suspended until the. 政治大. late 1970s after the ROC lifted up the trade and investment ban on the communist countries and gradually relaxed its anti-communist policy. Considering the absence of. 立. any relations between Taiwan and the region until that moment this topic attracted. ‧ 國. 學. relatively little scholarly attention. The few exceptions worth to mention are Pi Yinghsien‟s and Chao Chun-shan‟s Analysis of East European National Characteristics. ‧. and the ROC's Foreign Policy (東歐國情分析與我國對外關係), Tang Shao-cheng‟s The Relations between Poland and China/Taiwan: As Seen from Taiwan and Jan. Nat. sit. er. io. 2005).. y. Rowinski‟s China and Central and Eastern Europe: A New Relationship (Tubilewicz, Among the most recent works on Taiwan and Slovakia is Straková‟s (2017). al. n. v i n master thesis on Taiwan‟s Cultural The Case in Slovakia that C hDiplomacy Practice: U i e h n g ctool that Taiwan employs to pursue recognizes cultural diplomacy as an essential national interests. The research examines aspects of cultural diplomacy practices exercised in Slovakia with focus on the recent discourse of practices identified as successful and outlines suggestions for fine-tuning of the cultural diplomacy practice. The thesis moreover incorporates outcomes of a public survey about awareness of Taiwan and its cultural products among Slovak public. Finally, the article on SlovakTaiwanese Relations under the „One-China‟ Policy (Rejtová, 2019) analyzes the bilateral relations between Slovakia and Taiwan under different Slovak governments. The emphasis is put on the unofficial inter-parliamentary linkages and the influence of the 'One China' policy that shows to be hindering the deeper development of dialogue between Taiwan and Slovakia, and at the same time unnecessarily reducing the 22 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(23) potential offered by this cooperation. The article summarizes the most important agreements and events between Taiwan and Slovakia after the opening of the representative offices up to the date of its publication.. 2.3. Economic diplomacy. When it comes to economic diplomacy that works as a substitute for official diplomacy as for instance in Taiwan's case, certain approaches point out the inextricable linkage between economic diplomacy's tools, especially foreign aid and the concept of country's self-promotion that is sometimes also called propaganda or public diplomacy.. 政治大 sells a positive image of a country 立 and builds long-term relationships that create an According to Nye's definition, public diplomacy conveys public information,. ‧ 國. 學. enabling environment for government's policies (Nye, 2005). Public diplomacy is in academia generally connected to the term of soft power. According to Nye (2005), who first coined the term, soft power includes all the elements except what belongs to. ‧. the “hard power” (military power, economic sanctions, etc.). However, Alexander. sit. y. Nat. (2014) in his work called China and Taiwan in Central America, Engaging Foreign Public in Diplomacy, argues that in international relations, hard power factors can be. io. n. al. er. part of an attraction, and public diplomacy despite being a tool for gaining more soft. i Un. v. power, should not be thought of as exclusively an instrument for soft power. Ch. engchi. generation. He points out that since engaging in development assistance helps governments to improve their domestic and international public image, it is highly attractive to marginalized governments concerned with international and domestic sovereign legitimacy. Moreover, despite these governments often are not members of certain international organizations, development assistance allows them to take part on shaping global policies such as for instance the UN Millennium Development Goals. As Alexander (2014) points out, “This in turn provides the government with international and domestic authority and prestige because of their conformity to the prevailing values of the international system.” Batora (2006) agrees with this proposition in his writing on Public Diplomacy between Home and Abroad: Norway and Canada, by stating that “for small and medium–sized states, public diplomacy represents an opportunity to gain influence 23 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(24) and shape the international agenda in ways that go beyond their limited hard power resources”. Similarly, Rawnsley (2010) in his book about Taiwan's Informal Diplomacy and Propaganda, argues that foreign aid reinforces the benevolent image of the donor and ties it politically to the recipient through a relationship of loyalty and dependence. Rawnsley considers foreign aid an act of propaganda of the deed, i.e. an instrument of publicity in contrast to diplomatic communications, which may be private or public and more formal. He suggests that economic diplomacy and propaganda are closely linked as economic diplomacy has the power to reinforce the informality of relations. Likewise, Larus (2008) in her study about Soft Power versus Hard Cash makes use of constructivism to explain why some countries have chosen diplomatic. 政治大. relations with Taiwan over China. According to social constructivism, a state's behavior depends on both its self-constructed identity and the relations it has with. 立. other countries. Larus shows that Taiwan's key identifier in the international. ‧ 國. 學. community has been democracy and Taiwan has positioned itself as a political and economic model for developing countries. With China's growing influence and its. ‧. growing economic assistance in the world, these values helped Taiwan to project a positive image abroad and combined with the economic diplomacy – a key factor in. sit. y. Nat. diplomatic relations of Taiwan – helped Taiwan to retain its diplomatic allies.. io. er. Tubilewicz (2000, 2004, 2005, 2007) as well acknowledges that in the 1990s, Taiwan's booming economy and democracy helped to promote the country's name. n. al. Ch. i Un. v. internationally, especially in contrast to the anti-democratic and economically. engchi. backward China. Tubilewicz argues that Taiwan relying on this asset adopted economic diplomacy in Central Europe with the purpose either to identify new diplomatic allies or, if this proved impossible to achieve, to establish semiofficial „substantive‟ relations. In order to achieve its goals, Taiwan aimed at constructing the so-called asymmetrical interdependence between itself and the potential ally. This kind of relationship was supposed to place Taiwan in such a dominant position that the dependent country would have no other choice than comply with Taiwan's policy preferences (in exchange of economic rewards) (Tubilewicz, 2007). This very concept of allocating economic rewards in exchange of political concessions or recognition has been the reason why sometimes in media and academia economic diplomacy has been referred to as 'dollar diplomacy'. Although this term originally refers to the US practice in Central America and the Caribbean as 24 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(25) pointed out for instance in Financial Missionaries to the World, The Politics and Culture of Dollar Diplomacy (Rosenberg, 1999), it has been often associated with the ROC practice, especially in the context of the zero-sum diplomatic game with the PRC (Rawnsley, 2010), for instance in Africa as seen in Taiwan's Foreign Policy and Africa: The limitations of dollar diplomacy (Taylor, 2010) or even in Europe as pointed out in Taiwan's Balkan option: A new chapter in Republic of China „dollar diplomacy‟ (Tubilewicz, 2001). Although these books were not fundamental for this thesis, they can provide the readers with an interesting insight of Taiwan's economic diplomacy practice in specific regions of the world. In order to understand better the meaning of economic diplomacy, it is important to provide its conceptual definition. The emergence of the concept of. 政治大 as Woolcock (2011) argues, to provide a suitable theory of economic diplomacy 立 might be challenging due to the number of variables that can shape international. economic diplomacy in the study of diplomacy can be dated to the 1980s. However,. ‧ 國. 學. economic negotiations at any one. Literature review on this topic shows that since 1980s, very few works attempted to provide a sounder understanding of the meaning. ‧. and scope of the concept. Among the most influential there is for instance Baldwin's. y. Nat. (1985) Economic statecraft, Bayne's and Woolcock's (2003) The New Economic. sit. Diplomacy, Blanchard's and Ripsman's (2008) A political Theory of Economic. al. n. Economic Diplomacy.. er. io. Statecraft and more recent Maaike Okano-Heijmans' (2011) paper on Conceptualizing. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. In his authoritative writing about Economic Statecraft, Baldwin (1985) refers to an ancient foreign policy tool that has been defined as governmental influence attempts directed at other states and non-state actors in the international system relying essentially on tools which have a reasonable pretense of a market price in terms of money. As Baldwin argues, these resources can be either categorized as positive or negative economic sanctions, such as trade embargoes as well as aid programs by states and other actors such as the United Nations to coerce other states to cooperate. A similar definition has been provided by Berridge and James (2003) in their A Dictionary of Diplomacy, where economic diplomacy can be “a diplomacy which employs economic resources, either as rewards or sanctions, in pursuit of a particular foreign policy objective.” However, the dictionary entry is further expanded by a definition that sees economic diplomacy concerned with economic policy 25 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(26) questions and work related to monitoring and reporting on economic policies and development in the target state and advising on how best influence them. These authors conceptualized economic diplomacy using realist and neorealist frameworks which resulted in a traditional state-centric analysis where it is conducted by officials with the objective of advancing the economic interests of the state in foreign countries and the world economy (Lee and Hudson, 2004). However, with a growing influence of the process of globalization and regionalization on diplomacy, scholars have gradually started highlighting the importance of understanding international relations outside the narrow state-centric security framework. The new framework, as it has been defined by Lee and Hocking (2011) is the one that “involves the social, economic, cultural and political relations among networks of. 政治大 authors argue, that in this context, the study of diplomacy has moved from 立 emphasizing the economic tools of statecraft to the study of economic diplomacy in. political actors in formal and informal domestic and systemic environments.” The. ‧ 國. 學. which two themes emerge: 1) That of diplomat as agent in International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE) and 2) How to fit non-state and non-. Nat. y. ‧. foreign ministry officials into diplomatic agency.. sit. Indeed, these developments fragmenting the concept of a traditional state-to-. er. io. state economic diplomacy are reflected in research of many scholars of the 21 st. al. n. v i n C Cold War andU globalization. in reaction to the end of hthe engchi. century. Bayne and Woolcock (2003) promptly show how economic diplomacy evolved. They give an. account of these changes in The New Economic Diplomacy that shows the growing impact of non-state actors, such as private businesses and civil society on the practice of the state. The authors acknowledge that economic diplomacy is usually carried out by the state, but they also emphasize the importance of the domestic context in which the state operates. Therefore, they conceptualize economic diplomacy as a set of activities related to investment, export, import, lending aid and migration pursued by state and non-state actors in the real world. The involvement in international economic relations by an increasing number of non-state actors is discussed as well in Saner's and Yiu's (2003) paper on International Economic Diplomacy: Mutations in Postmodern Times. Their research emphasizes the importance of economic diplomats, whose contribution comes from 26 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(27) overseeing and reporting on economic policies in foreign countries and giving the home government directions on how to best influence them. In this context, Saner and Yiu define economic diplomacy as diplomacy dealing with economic policy issues, e.g. work of delegation at organizations such as WTO and Bank of International Settlements (BIS). The authors stress the importance of acquiring the additional competences to engage constructively in political dialogue for the different actors involved in today's complex political and economic realities and at the same time for MOFA's and state's diplomats to learn to reshape their traditional roles and functions in the enlarged sphere of postmodern diplomacy (Saner and Yiu, 2003). In a similar fashion, the above mentioned authors Lee and Hocking (2010) in their paper on Economic Diplomacy conceptualize economic diplomacy as a series of. 政治大. formal and informal activities and ties between public-private networks encompassing state and non-state actors. They as well put a special emphasis on the role of. 立. diplomats, who with their direct involvement in trade and finance negotiations, as. ‧ 國. 學. well as commercial activities create and regulate markets and capital. Moreover, reflecting the above mentioned changes in economic diplomacy,. ‧. Lee and Hocking (2010) see the necessity of redefining the concept of the discipline. They focus on key strands of economic diplomacy that reflect and are relevant to the. Nat. sit. y. contemporary globalization. These are: trade diplomacy, commercial diplomacy,. io. er. finance diplomacy, and consular visa services associated to increased migration flows. Adopting a different method, Maaike Okano-Heijmans (2011) in the article called. n. al. Ch. i Un. v. Conceptualizing Economic Diplomacy: The Crossroads of International Relations,. engchi. Economics, IPE and Diplomatic Studies, discerns five strands of economic diplomacy that are often overlapping and distinctions between them are often unclear. The concepts are: economic diplomacy, economic statecraft, economic security, trade diplomacy, commercial diplomacy and financial diplomacy. These strands can be either perceived as more commercial/economic or political in essence and are thereby closer to the 'business end' or 'power-play end' of economic diplomacy. Indeed, the purpose of economic diplomacy is generally perceived as of economic nature, i.e. to enhance economic growth (be it domestic or foreign) (Tubilewicz, 2007), to promote and/or influence international trade and investment and to increase economic security (Van Bergeijk, Moons, 2009). However, economic diplomacy does not only aim at economic ends, but it sometimes uses economic tools for non-economic purposes, such as to consolidate the right political climate or to 27 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(28) advance personal foreign policy objectives, be they diplomatic, military or expressive (Holsti, 1995).. Now that a brief introduction of the literature on economic diplomacy has been given, for the purpose of this thesis, economic diplomacy will be defined as follows: ●. Economic diplomacy is a series of formal and informal activities and links carried by state actors and non-state actors directed at other states and nonstate actors in the international system.. ●. Economic diplomacy employs economic activities, such as export, import, investment, lending, aid programs etc.. 政治大 therefore used either as rewards or sanctions. 立. ●. These activities can be either categorized as positive or negative and are. ●. The goals of economic diplomacy can be either closer to power-play end or. ‧ 國. 學. closer to business end. Thus economic diplomacy can be used when pursuing a particular foreign policy objective, to promote and/or influence international. ‧. trade and investment, to enhance performance of markets and/or to deal with. sit. y. Nat. market shortages and to reduce costs and risks of cross border transactions; to. io. n. al. er. increase economic security.. i Un. v. From the above mentioned literature results that most of the theoretical works. Ch. engchi. on economic diplomacy focus on the actors of the economic diplomacy and its effectiveness, however, not that much on the target states and the conditions for success of economic diplomacy. If they do so, they usually elaborate on sanctions and incentives and tend to focus on the regime-type of the target state (Brooks, 2002; Lektzian and Souva, 2007) and neglects the other domestic factors relevant for the evaluation of conditions for success of economic diplomacy (Blanchard and Ripsman, 2008). For instance, the paper on An Institutional Theory of Sanctions Onset and Success argues that the relationship between the cost of sanctions and regime type is dependent, and sanctions are more successful when they are addressed to the target‟s winning coalition (Lektzian and Souva, 2007). Similarly, Woo and Verdier (2013) in their paper on Sanctions, Rewards and Regime Types, work with the regime type proposition and conclude that both sanctions and incentives are most effective when 28 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(29) used simultaneously. However the authors identify the intermediate regimes (neither quite democratic, neither absolutely autocratic) to be the least responsive to either type of incentive. On the other hand, Blanchard's and Ripsman's (2008) A political Theory of Economic Statecraft analyzes the conditions of economic sanctions and incentives that lead to successful achievement of important political objectives as well as the reasons why do they fail. The authors argue that the success of economic statecraft depends on whether it succeeds to translate the economic pain or gain into political costs or opportunities, rather than its economic magnitude. The degree of the sanctions' or incentives' success depends on what the authors define as the target state‟s level of stateness. Stateness is conceptualized as composed of three components: 1) autonomy, or a state‟s ability to take decisions under the pressure of. 政治大. domestic political opposition; 2) capacity, or the state‟s capability either to. 立. compensate or coerce the ones that will lose from going against the sender; and 3). ‧ 國. 學. legitimacy, or the ability of the state to reunite dissatisfied domestic groups. Perhaps a more suitable perspective for the analysis on when and under what. ‧. conditions economic diplomacy can achieve foreign-policy objectives is offered by the theory on the so-called asymmetrical interdependence. The term itself is perhaps. Nat. sit. y. known thanks to the Power and Interdependence by Koehane and Nye (2011), who. io. er. defined it as a relationship where one party is more dependent on another for a certain commodity. However, it was Caporaso (1978) who defined the concept in a strictly. n. al. Ch. i Un. v. economic term as a relation where actor A depends on actor B for large amount. engchi. (expressed as proportions of total consumption) of important goods which are not easy to be replaced at bearable costs. On the other hand, B obtains small quantities of unimportant goods from A that are replaceable. Caporaso suggested three conditions facilitating the formation of a dependent relationship: 1) size of the reliance relationship, 2) importance of goods on which one relies, and ease, 3) availability and cost of the replacement alternatives (Caporaso, 1978). This argument has been refined and expanded by Tubilewicz (2007), who analyzes the asymmetrical interdependence on the case of Taiwan as a donor and the post-communist European countries as target states. The conditions that the author identify as necessary for establishing a dependent relationship between actor and target state are as follows: 1) the dependent relationship, 2) generosity, 3) disbursements, 4) economic effectiveness of assistance, 29 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(30) 5) economic cooperation, 6) domestic politics, 7) feasibility of diplomatic objectives; and particularly relevant for the Taiwan‟s case 8) the China‟s factor. From the above reviewed literature, we learned that one of the frequent diplomatic tools adopted by Taiwan to enhance its international presence is economic diplomacy. There have been several approaches to economic diplomacy. The earlier ones emphasize its close linkage to the state. Recently, with the changes of international sphere resulting from growing influence of globalization and regionalization on diplomacy, new approaches stressing the role of new nongovernmental actors have emerged. Understanding the engagement of various actors in economic diplomacy is particularly relevant for the case of Taiwan. Government actors such as the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA, 中華民國經濟部), the. 政治大會), Central Bank of China (中央銀行) or several governmental aid funds, such as the 立. Ministry of Finance (中華民國財政部), the Council of Agriculture (行政院農業委員. ‧ 國. 學. International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF, 國際合作發展基金) as well as the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (蔣經. ‧. 國國際學術交流基金會 ) are important channels of Taiwan‟s investments (Tubilewicz, 2007). On the other hand, Taiwan relies on around 3000 NGOs to. y. Nat. sit. promote its image of aid donor and at the same time to enhance its status in the like-. er. io. minded international community (Taiwan Today, 2017). 5 Taiwanese transnational. al. v i n C hexport of capitalUis a way how instance, engchi. n. companies and business communities also play an important role in Taiwan's economic diplomacy. For. to strengthen. Taiwan's ties with countries receiving its capital investments. The export of capital has been one of the successful ways Taiwan elevates bilateral relations to a higher footing. As Timothy Ka-Ying Wong (1999) points out, with the growing bilateral economic and trade relations both the Taiwan's government and the government engaged in economic activities with Taiwan gradually agree on mutual conveniences that often result in the establishment of representative offices or granting of certain rights and privileges that only formal diplomats are given.. 5. Among the most prominent Taiwan's NGOs there is for instance the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China (Taiwan) (中華民國紅十字會) or the religious NGOs, such as Fo Guang Shan (佛光山慈悲基金會) and Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟基金會).. 30 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(31) From the available literature on economic diplomacy it is thus possible to understand how actor states engage in economic diplomacy. Rather few of the works, however, elaborate on the perspective of the target states. For the purpose of this thesis‟ research it was of particular relevance to incorporate the approach towards economic diplomacy of a target state as well. Despite the contribution of Tubilewicz's books on Taiwan's diplomatic activities in Central Europe, the information on the case of Taiwan‟s economic diplomacy adopted on Slovakia still remains rather limited. This major gap in the literature could be perhaps explained as a result of an insufficient awareness about Taiwan in the Slovak society. The following chapters of this thesis therefore aim to address this flaw and contribute to the academic debate on the topic.. 2.4. Analytical Framework. 立. 政治大. In order to answer this thesis research questions (How did Slovakia respond to. ‧ 國. 學. the Taiwanese economic inducements in Central Europe in the 1990s? and What were the specific reasons that led Slovakia to be the last Central-European country to. ‧. establish the representative office with Taiwan?), this thesis adopts the perspective of. y. Nat. economic diplomacy and the framework suggested by Czeslaw Tubilewicz on the. sit. case of Taiwan's relation with Central and Eastern European countries (Tubilewicz,. er. io. 2007). Tubilewicz's research explains Taiwan's diplomatic accomplishments or. al. n. v i n C U dominant hstate of Taiwan's e nand g ctheh irecipients. failures from the perspective of asymmetrical interdependent relationship between Taiwan as a potentially. economic. favors. The asymmetrical interdependence can be established by means of trade volume, foreign direct investments or foreign aid that puts the dominant state in a position that it has the power of influencing the dependent state's policies so that these become consistent with the policy preferences of the dominant state. The framework thus evaluates whether Taipei attempted to form, or successfully formed an asymmetrical interdependence with the target states and is therefore helpful to evaluate the Slovak-Taiwanese relations in the 1990s. Following Tubilewicz‟s definition, we could assume that the asymmetrical interdependence between Taiwan and Slovakia would result from Taiwan‟s capacity to form a relationship with Slovakia that is characterized by some degree of Slovakia‟s economic vulnerability with regards to Taiwan, whether in terms of trade, 31 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(32) aid or investment. In this relationship, Taiwan is in a position to influence Slovakia's policies to the extent that these become consistent with Taiwan's policy preferences. The study assumes that, without Taiwan's influence efforts, Slovakia would think preferable political relations with China rather than with Taiwan (Tubilewicz, 2007). In Tubilewicz‟s study on Taiwan‟s economic diplomacy in Central Europe, the analytical framework incorporates concepts such as dependent relationship, generosity,. disbursements,. economic. effectiveness. of. assistance,. economic. cooperation, domestic politics, feasibility of diplomatic objectives, and the China factor (Tubilewicz, 2007). Some key changes in the proposed analytical framework include the decision of limiting the factors resulting in asymmetrical interdependent relationship on the economic sphere, i.e. as mentioned above the trade volume,. 政治大 direct investments will be categorized as “economic cooperation”. In a similar 立 fashion, this thesis chooses to categorize “generosity”, “disbursement” and “economic foreign direct investments and foreign aid. For this purpose, trade volume and foreign. ‧ 國. 學. effectiveness of assistance” as sub-categories of the concept “economic assistance” for practical reasons.. ‧. Other changes include removing the concept “feasibility of diplomatic. sit. y. Nat. objectives”. This is because the researcher believes the opening of the representative. io. er. offices between Taiwan and Slovakia can be considered a feasible diplomatic objective of Taiwan‟s foreign policy. Especially given the diplomatic missions. n. al. Ch. i Un. v. already present in the neighboring central European countries and their obvious character of unofficial representation.. engchi. Finally, this study proposes to include to the analytical framework the concept of “the EU membership”. This is because the researcher assumes that the EU membership played the role of a leading force for Slovakia‟s economic reforms and promotion of favorable conditions for the opening of the mutual offices with Taiwan. The asymmetrical interdependence in the framework adopted for this thesis will be measured on the degree of mutual economic cooperation between Taiwan and Slovakia and the level of economic assistance provided from Taiwan to Slovakia.. 32 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(33) It is assumed that the success of Taiwan‟s economic diplomacy being translated into political ends further depends on conditions such as 1) the target‟s state domestic politics, 2) if located in Europe its EU membership, and 3) the China factor. •. Economic cooperation Taiwanese transnational companies and business communities play an. important role in Taiwan's economic diplomacy. For instance, export of capital is a way how to strengthen Taiwan's ties with countries receiving its capital investments. The export of capital has been one of the successful ways Taiwan elevates bilateral relations to a higher footing. As Timothy Ka-Ying Wong points out, with the growing bilateral economic and trade relations both the Taiwan's government and the. 治政 in the establishment大 of representative offices or. government engaged in economic activities with Taiwan gradually agree on mutual conveniences that often result. 立. granting of certain rights and privileges that only formal diplomats are given (Wong,. ‧ 國. 學. 1999). However, in order to establish a certain level of interdependence, it is important to keep in mind that dependence on Taiwan as an export market, rather than. ‧. an import market, brings higher chances of conformity with Taiwanese foreign policy objectives. Even if the target state‟s export is not dependent on the Taiwanese market,. y. Nat. al. n. •. Economic assistance. Ch. engchi. er. io. Taiwan‟s political demands (Tubilewicz, 2007).. sit. its trade surplus with Taiwan should make it susceptible to meet at least some of. i Un. v. Tubilewicz (2007) assumes that “greater generosity is more likely to achieve policy goals.” Therefore, in order to establish and maintain relations by means of asymmetrical interdependence, it would be in Taiwan‟s interest to offer the target state generous economic incentives and/or rewards. However, it is assumed that negotiable grants or soft loans are more likely to stimulate target state‟s interest rather than aid conditional on Taiwanese exports or granted for specific reasons (Tubilewicz, 2007).. •. Domestic politics. 33 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.

(34) From the perspective of the political environment, it is assumed in Tubilewicz‟s study (2007), that “states with governing parties leaning to the left would be more likely to treasure friendship with communist China than states where the ruling elites are oriented towards the right of center in the ideological spectrum.” Thus while the leftist leaders would prioritize a smooth dialogue assuring China's diplomatic support and accessing to its growing market, by analogy, state leaders with human rights and democratic values on their main agendas would be expected to show support to Taiwan (Tubilewicz, 2007).. •. EU membership. 政治大. The prospect of the EU membership for the Central-European post-communist countries is believed to have played a major role in propelling the governments to. 立. adopt market reforms and open up their economies in order to catch up with and. ‧ 國. 學. adjust to international standards. As a consequence, the willingness to accept Taiwan‟s economic incentives would be more likely higher from governments. ‧. wishing to attract foreign investors and business partners. The already existent economic cooperation between the EU and Taiwan could have had especially. Nat. sit. al. er. io. China.. y. facilitated otherwise cautious approach of the target states in official relations with. n. While the aspiration for the EU membership could have had positive impact. Ch. i Un. v. on the perception of Taiwan as an attractive economic partner, it indeed added to the. engchi. target state‟s value as well. Expanding its market in the EU represented substantial advantage for Taiwan. Especially attractive was the ideal location, a solid industrial base, low wage costs and a skilled labor force (我國設立駐斯洛伐克代表處記者會紀要 , 2003). Therefore, Taiwan would presumably offer generous incentives to countries whose membership in the EU was secured. From the political aspect, the EU membership is believed to be providing constant direct pressure for an acceding state to introduce and adopt democratic rules and procedures, civil and other rights and lead thus to its transformation into a highly developed country when it comes to economic development, institutions and the quality of governance (Javorcik, Kaminski, 2004). In this sense, adhering to the EU. 34 DOI:10.6814/NCCU202001274.