Taiwan trade office fracas

The entire diplomatic incident has been as unfortunate as it has been perplexing. The Bangladeshi government has made repeated assurances to its Chinese counterparts that the only interest in the opening of the trade office was business opportunity, and nothing more. The government has repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to the One China policy and stated that the opening of the trade office not be interpreted as any kind of recognition of Taiwan's status, leave alone sovereignty.

Nevertheless, the Chinese government has not been mollified by these assurances. It has exerted tremendous pressure on Dhaka to close down the office, stating that the office's continued existence calls into question Bangladesh's fidelity to the One China principle and that it threatens to put our entire bilateral relationship at risk.

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In this context it is worth noting that Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Vietnam all have Taipei representative offices of the very kind that has caused such a ruckus in Dhaka, without any repercussions from Beijing. In fact, many of these representative offices even provide consular services, whereas the one in Dhaka contemplated no such thing, and the head of both the Indonesian and Korean missions are officers with ambassador level ranking.

Why, then, is Bangladesh being singled out? Indeed, Bangladesh's actions and intentions have been wholly innocuous throughout. We had no agenda other than to further our own economic interests. The pressure, the mention of " grave consequences" and the threat of "undoing" of all our bilateral gains have left us surprised and shocked as why China was reacting in such a manner, while treating so many other countries with trade offices of Taiwan totally differently. Why this double standard? Why is such behaviour with a country that has supported China unreservedly?

Let there be no mistake, Bangladesh is fully supportive of the One China principle and would like to reaffirm its close bilateral relationship with China. No one benefits when friends quarrel. We should not succumb to pressure when all we have done is to pursue a legitimate economic interest without according any diplomatic status to Taiwan. The opening of a Taiwan trade office in Dhaka when the same has been set up in other countries can not be construed as a hostile act against Chinese interest. We support our government's initiative and appeal to China to treat us similarly as it does so many other countries in the Asian region.