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This thesis is concerned with the topic of the Sino-Taiwanese diplomatic struggle in Central America. Specifically, it analyses 4 countries, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, which abandoned their longstanding relations with Taiwan in order to establish relations with China between 2017-2023. The work aims to find out, whether the reasons for these diplomatic switches were purely economic, or if non-economic motivations played a role as well. The main analytical section of the work consists of 4 case-studies, which analyze the relevant motivations behind the switches. In conclusion, the author finds out that economic motivations played a major role in all cases. At the same time, however, there was at least one other non-economic motivation observed in every case. Specifically, in every case we can observe power related motivations aiming to maximize strategic power of the respective country and at the same time limit the influence of the US in the region. In two cases ideological motivations in the form of ideological closeness of the domestic government with the Chinese Communist Party were uncovered. Finally, in two cases motivations regarding domestic politics and election campaigns were detected. |
