Much ado, little afoot? How the Nordics approach Taiwan

As the Taiwan issue has become increasingly sensitive in the past several years, the
Nordic governments are struggling to strike the right balance amid widespread calls
for stepping up the support for Taiwan and deepening concerns about violating
China’s notorious core interests. Against the wider backdrop of current European
engagement with/detachment from Taiwan, this report provides an in-depth
empirical mapping and comparison of how the five Nordic countries – Denmark,
Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – are handling their unofficial political relations
with Taiwan. Focusing on each country’s “One China” policy, its practical management
of bilateral relations and its Taiwan-related parliamentarian activism, the report finds
that the Nordics can be divided into a set of “isolationist” countries (Iceland and
Norway) with virtually no direct channels of institutionalised bilateral interaction and
a group of “commercial pragmatists” (Denmark, Finland and Sweden) who operate
trade offices in Taipei alongside Taiwanese representative offices in their own
capitals. The report shows that all the Nordic governments have recently adopted a
very cautious approach in the face of Beijing’s increasingly assertive imposition of
its “One China” principle. Indeed, the growing willingness of parliamentarians in
some of the Nordic countries (notably Sweden) to put Taiwan on their political
agenda has been to little avail as long as the Nordic governments continue to ignore
or curtail Taiwan-related queries and proposals. Until the Nordic governments clarify
their position – ultimately by rejecting (or endorsing) the “One China” principle – the
state of Nordic-Taiwan relations will remain fragile and contested.