標題:Cash Helped China Win Costa Rica’s Recognition By GRAHAM BOWLEY Published: September 12, 2008 As part of an incentive package to persuade Costa Rica to shift its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China last year, China used the muscle of its enormous foreign exchange reserves, agreeing to buy $300 million of Costa Rican bonds, documents released in Costa Rica this week revealed. The deal shows that China is using its $1.8 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, the world’s largest such cache of foreign currency, to further its political goals, despite promises that it would not do so. As China’s economic might has risen in recent years, so has concern about its international reach, particularly in the United States. China is thought to be the largest foreign holder of United States government-backed debt, and bankers estimate that $1 trillion of China’s total foreign exchange reserves are in American securities. The terms of the agreement were meant to be kept secret, according to La Naci ón, a Costa Rican newspaper, but the government was forced by the constitutional court to publish the memorandum of understanding signed by both countries, as well as other documents. The court considered the information to be in the public’s interest. The memorandum, posted on the Web site of Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry, is dated June 1, 2007, the month that China and Costa Rica established diplomatic relations, and it is co-signed by Yang Jiechi, China’s foreign minister. The memorandum states that in return for Costa Rica’s shutting its embassy in Taiwan and expelling Taiwanese diplomats, China agreed to buy $300 million in bonds. It also agreed to give $130 million in aid to Costa Rica, as well as other incentives, including 20 scholarships each year for Costa Ricans to study in China. The documents show that the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the secretive organization that is the steward of China’s foreign exchange reserves, agreed to buy $150 million in state bonds, with a term of 12 years and carrying an interest rate of 2 percent per year, in January of this year and a further $150 million in January 2009. La Nación reported that the Costa Rican finance minister, Guillermo Zúñ iga, had warned this week that the decision to make the details of the agreement public could jeopardize the purchase of the second set of bonds by China. It quoted the Chinese ambassador to Costa Rica, Wang Xiaoyu, as saying that China was now assessing the impact on relations between the countries. In a statement published Wednesday, Vice President Laura Chinchilla defended the agreement. “We believe that the country received only positive news with the establishment of this relationship,” she said. China’s ruling Communist Party considers Taiwan, a democracy of 23 million, a rebel province that must be brought back into the fold. China has threatened to use force to reclaim Taiwan if it takes steps to formalize its de facto independence from the mainland. China for years has devoted considerable diplomatic energy and financial resources to persuading other countries to sever ties with Taiwan. After Costa Rica’s switch to China last year, Taiwan was left with only a small circle of 23 international supporters, most of them tiny, poor nations, while Beijing commands the support of 171 nations. China has also worked to block Taiwan from joining certain international bodies, like the World Health Organization. Both sides have vied for friends with lavish offers of financial aid and infrastructure projects, but the involvement of the foreign exchange administration in providing a lure is a new one. The revelation that the foreign exchange administration had used funds under its supervision to achieve China’s diplomatic goals may complicate the agency ’s efforts to broaden and diversify the investment of China’s largely dollar-based foreign currency holdings. Both the foreign exchange administration and the China Investment Corporation, a state-run investment fund that has a separate role in investing China’s foreign-currency holdings in overseas assets, are eager to find new, more lucrative outlets for earning profits in dollar-based investments. But politicians in the United States have raised concerns that China could use such investments as leverage to realize political and diplomatic goals that sometimes clash with Washington’s priorities. A version of this article appeared in print on September 13, 2008, on page A8 of the New York edition. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/world/asia/13costa.html?ref=world 新聞來源: (需有正確連結) -- --

※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 220.129.161.163