Taipei, Aug. 8 (CNA) Taiwan's diplomacy has been long caught up in the "myth" of the numbers of diplomatic allies, and it is probably time to adopt a new approach, academics said Tuesday.
The academics were attending a seminar organized by the Taiwan Thinktank that focused on cross-Taiwan Strait relations after Taiwan cut its official ties with the central African country of Chad, which switched its diplomatic ties to China Aug. 6.
"Theoretically, the more allies the better, because it helps us in international organizations, " Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Michel Lu said.
"If Taiwan had 60 or 80 allies, the situation would definitely not be the same, " said Lu. But he admitted that it is "almost impossible" for Taiwan to add more allies within a short period of time.
"How many allies do we need? What does an ally mean to Taiwan? Is it realistic and meaningful to offer financial aid that exceeds our capability just to keep an ally that could switch recognition at any time? It's time for us to re-visit these basic issues, " said Chen Wen-hsien, a professor at National Chengchi University.
As more and more people disapprove of the so-called "checkbook diplomacy" in which Taiwan has been engaged for the past several decades, the government will definitely change its direction to a more pragmatic route, said Lu.
"We will no longer promise our allies something we cannot do. We won't accept blackmail either, " he said.
Lo Chih-cheng, chairman of the Department of Political Science of Soochow University, offered a different perspective on the numbers of Taiwan's allies. The fact that China has wrestled away five allies from Taiwan in the past five years means that China has changed the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, he said.
Lo encouraged the international community to pay attention to the decreasing numbers of Taiwan's allies and the increasing numbers of China's ballistic missiles across the Taiwan Strait -- both a sign of the change of status quo.