Foreign Relations of the ROC

green: diplomatic relations 
blue: non-diplomatic unofficial relations 
gray: no diplomatic relation

Since the ROC declared its independence from mainland China, the government in Beijing has leveraged its significant economic and political strength as a growing world superpower to undermine Taiwan’s ability to maintain foreign relations. This has hampered the ROC's ability to actually become an independent state. China continues to strip away what it left of Taiwan’s diplomatic partners with promises of diplomatic and economic support. They have been increasingly successful in recent years, bringing the Dominican Republic, the country that occupies the other half of the island Haiti resides on, to recognize China over Taiwan in 2018. The assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise provided an opening for China to exploit the political turmoil in Haiti. Using the previously unseen advantage brought about by the 2020 pandemic, China has deployed “vaccine diplomacy” to exert growing pressure on Taiwan’s allies, particularly Haiti (Dou and Chen, para. 14). The United States has stepped in to provide vaccines to some of the countries that continue to hold out against China (Nagasawa and Miyamoto, para. 7). However, as the US government continues to recognize China over the ROC, there is little substantial difference their interference can make. By dangling the COVID-19 vaccines and other pandemic aid, China has increased pressure on Haiti and other Taiwanese allies in an effort to force them into denouncing their diplomatic relations with Taiwan. This is only the most recent development in China's long history of forcibly divesting Taiwan of its allies. 

Haiti has yet to succumb to these efforts, in part, because of China’s previous methods of persuasion dating back to the 1990s. China has used its seat on the United Nations Security Council to punish Haiti for continuing relations with Taiwan by obstructing peacekeeping missions in 1996 and 2005 to cause problems in an already politically unstable country (Chang, 5). This succeeded in fostering bad blood between Haiti and China, accomplishing the exact opposite of China’s goal. Additionally, Haiti is vulnerable to pressure from the United States after centuries of political and military interference, so Haiti has joined the US and other western nations in opposing some of China’s more questionable policies, including the national security law in 2020 for Hong Kong (Chang, 5). With relations between the US and China strained, Haiti is more sound in its conviction to remain diplomatic allies with Taiwan.  
                                    
                                       Haiti and Taiwan remain allies despite China's efforts