It was five years ago that former President and Nobel Peace Laureate Oscar Arias Sanchez officially announced that Costa Rica was breaking diplomatic relations with Taiwan and initiating talks with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Many Ticos received the announcement with a certain level of guarded apprehension in 2007, and now Costa Rica is the only country in the Central American isthmus that does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Five years after China and Costa Rica shook hands, Ticos enjoy a handsome National Stadium. The PRC has donated hundreds of patrol cars to Costa Rica, although the first batch did not survive our perilous road conditions and the heavy-duty driving by members of Fuerza Publica. China is now offering to finance and build a new National Police Academy, as recently reported by The Costa Rica Star.

The Chinese state press agency Xinhua reported on the exchange of congratulatory notes between President Laura Chinchilla and President Hu Jintao. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Costa Rica issued an official communique on the matter, although the Presidential Office did not issue anything on the matter and President Chinchilla did not mention the anniversary on her personal Twitter account that is followed by thousands of Ticos.

It seems as if virtually any nation in the world these days can hold diplomatic relations with the PRC, as long as relations with Taiwan do not get in the way. A brand-new stadium in The Bahamas has a history similar to that of our National Stadium. As a result of breaking diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2007, former President Oscar Arias courted the PRC at the right time: during the 2008 Summer Olympics, after China had built extensive infrastructure to accommodate the Summer Games.

The Bahamas had already broken diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1997, but it seems as if Oscar Arias planted the stadium idea as a seed in the Central American and Caribbean region. The tiny island nation of Dominica also boasts a new stadium donated by the PRC, as well as a school and a remodeled hospital. Grenada is another country getting a stadium; it cut ties with Taiwan in 2004.

In Costa Rica, our former diplomatic relationship with Taiwan is nearly an afterthought. Back in April, The Costa Rica Star reported on a shark fin poaching case in which a criminal court in Puntarenas involving a detained Taiwanese captain in charge of a fishing vessel registered in Belize. Tsai Yu Jen was caught unloading 20,000 kilos of blue shark at a commercial dock in the Port of Puntarenas. Fishing inspectors detained him when they determined that a concealed part of his catch consisted of blue sharks with their fins cut off. Captain Tsai Yu Jen will now have to pay 62 million colones, about $124,000.

There are also mentions of a Taiwanese shark-finning mafia operating in our oceans and our prison system, purportedly awaiting the extradition of environmental activist Paul Watson. The founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is concerned that a powerful organized crime network from Taiwan could settle a score against him in Costa Rica.

You can find out more about the relations between Costa Rica and China in the following articles previously published by The Costa Rica Star:

• First Patrol Cars, Now Patrolmen
• Alarm over Dog Food and Treats from China
• China Donates Patrol Cars
• Uncertainty over the Number of Chinese Billionaires
• Rare Earth Production in China
• Relations Between Costa Rica and China