Forgive me, I don't know a lot about geopolitics and the like, but i was curious about the part talking about Chinese and Taiwanese help to Chad. It seems odd to me that two very foreign countries would basically be competing which can provide
more aid. For Taiwan it kinda makes sense since they were supported, but China? And even then, why do global superpowers care to invest lots of resources into countries just to be 'recognised' by them? I imagine it's to do with Chads natural resources and labour force but i dont see the direct connection.
Happy to answer. Not sure how much background you have so I'll give a long answer.
Besides resources, "soft power" is another crucial reason. Soft power is the ability of a country to influence another country (especially for United Nations votes).
After WW2, China, Soviets, and America kicked Japan out of occupying China and then China resumed its civil war between the Nationalists (Kuomintang) by Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communists by Mao Zedong. Soviets helped the Communists, America helped the Nationalists.
Mao won, turned China communist, and the Nationalists fled to Taiwan by 1950. Both states call themselves "China". Mao's Mainland China headquartered in Beijing is "People's Republic of China" and Chiang Kai-Shek's Taiwan Island headquartered in Taipei is "Republic of China".
Initially, Taipei held the UN security council seat and Beijing was basically a rouge state with the exception of Soviets.
Mao had to do a charm offensive in order to take the seat away from Taipei. So Mao started doing development programs around the world including Africa. Mao was able to convince most of the World to kick out Taipei and allow Beijing, with few exceptions. Chiang Kai Shek also did a charm offensive to retain his seat but he can't deploy as much as resources as much as China could. Once China's economy started rapidly growing during the Deng years, then China could allocate orders of magnitude more aid.
America acknowledges Mainland China as real China starting in the 1970s, but Nixon, Ford, and Carter created this weird oddity where accept that Mainland China is China, and Taiwan is not considered a state, but America will defend Taiwan. Very few countries acknowledge Taiwan as a country, but many nations including the US have fake embassies in Taiwan.
Chad was very late to acknowledge Mainland China due to Taiwan giving substantial aid. But by 90s Taiwan couldn't compete anymore. Thus Chad switched to acknowledging Beijing as China.
That makes so much sense, I didn't know it ran quite so deep.
You often see countries taking one or another side in a certain conflict and I never quite knew why that mattered since they didn't lend any real aid, but now I see how it's actually way more influential on a larger scale and not just lip service. Thank you for explaining:)
Forgive me, I don't know a lot about geopolitics and the like, but i was curious about the part talking about Chinese and Taiwanese help to Chad. It seems odd to me that two very foreign countries would basically be competing which can provide
more aid. For Taiwan it kinda makes sense since they were supported, but China? And even then, why do global superpowers care to invest lots of resources into countries just to be 'recognised' by them? I imagine it's to do with Chads natural resources and labour force but i dont see the direct connection.
(also great article as always)
Great question!
Happy to answer. Not sure how much background you have so I'll give a long answer.
Besides resources, "soft power" is another crucial reason. Soft power is the ability of a country to influence another country (especially for United Nations votes).
After WW2, China, Soviets, and America kicked Japan out of occupying China and then China resumed its civil war between the Nationalists (Kuomintang) by Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communists by Mao Zedong. Soviets helped the Communists, America helped the Nationalists.
Mao won, turned China communist, and the Nationalists fled to Taiwan by 1950. Both states call themselves "China". Mao's Mainland China headquartered in Beijing is "People's Republic of China" and Chiang Kai-Shek's Taiwan Island headquartered in Taipei is "Republic of China".
Initially, Taipei held the UN security council seat and Beijing was basically a rouge state with the exception of Soviets.
Mao had to do a charm offensive in order to take the seat away from Taipei. So Mao started doing development programs around the world including Africa. Mao was able to convince most of the World to kick out Taipei and allow Beijing, with few exceptions. Chiang Kai Shek also did a charm offensive to retain his seat but he can't deploy as much as resources as much as China could. Once China's economy started rapidly growing during the Deng years, then China could allocate orders of magnitude more aid.
America acknowledges Mainland China as real China starting in the 1970s, but Nixon, Ford, and Carter created this weird oddity where accept that Mainland China is China, and Taiwan is not considered a state, but America will defend Taiwan. Very few countries acknowledge Taiwan as a country, but many nations including the US have fake embassies in Taiwan.
Chad was very late to acknowledge Mainland China due to Taiwan giving substantial aid. But by 90s Taiwan couldn't compete anymore. Thus Chad switched to acknowledging Beijing as China.
Make sense?
That makes so much sense, I didn't know it ran quite so deep.
You often see countries taking one or another side in a certain conflict and I never quite knew why that mattered since they didn't lend any real aid, but now I see how it's actually way more influential on a larger scale and not just lip service. Thank you for explaining:)
Anytime
Thanks for such a thorough report. It covered a lot of ground that I was unfamiliar with.