China Outplays Taiwan in Cricket Diplomacy

March 26, 2007 — -- China has used the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies to try and hit archrival Taiwan out of the stadium.

Beijing is widely seen as having financed the building or improvement of many cricket venues being used for the World Cup to isolate Taiwan and expand its influence in the Caribbean.

China has spent a remarkable $132 million on cricket facilities in the West Indies over the past few years. The International Cricket Council's 10-year budget to promote cricket globally: only $70 million.

China gave Antigua a $55 million grant to build the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium. It gave $30 million to Jamaica for a new Trelawny stadium. St. Lucia has both a cricket and a football stadium courtesy of Beijing. The 70,000 people of Dominica have received the aid equivalent of $1,600 per person in the form of a cricket grounds, new drains for the capital and better roads.

The immediate reason for this largesse is Beijing's determination to diplomatically isolate Taiwan. Says Harry Sung of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C.: "Their top priority is to isolate Taiwan. Most of the remaining countries that recognize Taiwan are located in the Caribbean and Latin America."

China's cricket diplomacy led to two West Indian countries, Grenada and Dominica, derecognizing Taiwan as an independent country. Of the remaining 24 countries that recognize Taiwan, four are in the Caribbean and two of these play cricket.

Grenada had one stadium built by Taiwan, but saw it flattened by a hurricane. China ran in and erected a second one. Taiwan took Grenada to a New York City court to force the latter to return the original loan.

A worried Taiwan also used the World Cup to shore up its position among its shrinking West Indian support base. It gave $21 million to the tiny island of St. Kitts and Nevis and $12 million to even smaller St. Vincent for cricket grounds.

Taiwanese officials have even sought to comprehend the game, called shen shi yun dong or "the noble game" in Chinese. The media officer of the Taiwanese Embassy in St. Kitts guardedly said, "We have watched the game. We understand it a little."

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri is a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the Asia Society.