As Government, Would U.D.P. Severe Ties with Taiwan?

On Friday, the Leader of the Opposition abstained from voting on a motion to celebrate thirty-five years of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Patrick Faber and Tracy Panton both supported the motion, though Shyne Barrow asserts that they do not speak for the U.D.P. Hugo Patt also supported the motion. Today, Barrow was asked if he will switch the country’s allegiance to China if he becomes prime minister.

 

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel as U.D.P. leader established diplomatic ties with China.  That is the truth in 1984.  So let us be factual. So, every U.D.P. leader has not supported Taiwan. Sir Manuel Esquivel in 1984 established relations with China. That is the history of U.D.P. Tell the truth. Tell the factual history of it. Don’t see that every leader in the U.D.P. has supported Taiwan. There is a history in the U.D.P., where the U.D.P. supported China.”

 

Reporter

“Will you follow his lead?”

 

Moses “Shyne” Barrow

“My position as it relates to Taiwan was on a specific basis.”

 

Reporter

“What about Hugo Patt, do you hold the view that your member, your U.D.P. member should have also abstained?”

 

Moses “Shyne” Barrow

“We discussed it before the fact, and I told him he was free to abstain and he knows the history and why I have taken the position and many in the party take the position I take and it is something we need to sit down and discuss and I will be guided by whatever decision the party makes. I will not make the decision unilaterally. This is a form of protest, expressing the dissatisfaction with the facts. I have great difficulty with the behavior of Taiwan. China is the world’s second largest economy. America, the UK, France, all of the G7 has relations with China. There are only ten nations out of all of the UN that have relations with Taiwan.”