It is perhaps a minor footnote in the congressional debate over CAFTA that all the countries involved maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan and not with China. But this fact is remarkably important to China and partly explains China's efforts in recent years to make inroads in Central America.
China has launched a major diplomatic offensive in Central America and the Caribbean to stamp out Taiwan's diplomatic legitimacy in the region and supplant Taiwan's influence among these young democracies with its own.
CAFTA's defeat, therefore, would be a double victory for China. Central America would be left with the message that the United States is simply not interested in its fledgling democracies. And Congress would do China the favor of taking out one of its few remaining competitors in the U.S. textile market.
marketing@alchempro.com
