| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 大陸研究所 === 93 === As a result of political antagonism across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan has engaged in “pragmatic diplomacy” since the end of 1980s in an attempt to reenter the international community and to establish more substantial official relations with foreign countries. As developing country, Taiwan has been donors of foreign aid with strong diplomatic incentives attached. Under the guideline of Taiwan’s foreign policy goals, we have consistently chosen aid recipients that meet our diplomatic needs. In the 1990s, however, under the guidance of pragmatic diplomacy, Taiwan has made a concerted effort to reenter the international community and focused instead on improving state-to state relations.
Official diplomacy and NGO activities may be "different approaches to the same ends," as the old Chinese saying goes, but they are fundamentally different. By mixing NGO functions with "track one" diplomacy, Taiwan has placed itself in an even worse position given the current international situation. NGO activities, however, are exchanges between civilians, not governments. In such unfavorable political antagonism across the Taiwan Strait circumstances, enabling Taiwan''s NGOs -- with the help of official diplomacy -- to give full play to their functions overseas while building long-standing partnerships with foreign nations and people, should definitely be considered one of Taiwan''s mid-to long-term strategic goals.
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