Foreign Recognition Is Useless

choi

Andrew Browne, Gambia Gambit Feeds Suspicion in Taiwan. Wall Street Journal, Mar 23, 2016.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/chin ... n-strait-1458624741

Quote:

"The bigger puzzle is why Taiwan cares as much as it does about this diplomatic struggle with China * * * Except for the Vatican, the island's 22 diplomatic friends have almost no global clout. The 10 smallest ones have a combined population of less than a million.

"Some in Taiwan believe that the island needs these countries to speak up for its interests in the United Nations and other international bodies that exclude Taipei.

"And decades of [Taiwanese] government propaganda have conditioned the Taiwan public to believe that formal diplomatic ties is a marker of nationhood

"None of these arguments make much sense. For a start, the US and other major powers maintain the equivalent of embassies in Taipei. * * * America, as Taiwan's main military backer, ultimately guarantees Taiwan's survival as independent in all but name. Nor do diplomatic ties make a country under international law. The Montevideo Convention discusses four qualifications for statehood [none of which involves recognition by another nation]

Note: In the last quotation: "in all but name."  Whose name? America's name as true protector or Taiwan's name as an independent, sovereign nation?  I thought it over -- and read it over and again -- the whole day, and am inclined toward the latter.