Confusing Sino-politics

There was a time when the whole situation was crystal clear: the United Workers Party (UWP) government had worked closely with the Taiwanese, who for years maintained an Embassy here and made some small contributions to the development of the country, especially in the agricultural sector.
The politics of St. Lucia changed and the St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) assumed power and – especially through the efforts of George Odlum, who was then minister for Foreign Affairs, broke off diplomatic ties with Taiwan and established a relationship with Mainland China.
The increase in the size of the contributions – mainly infrastructural – was glaring … and most people saw the move as a positive one, benefiting the country, from that part of the world, in a manner that had been unprecedented.
It was then common knowledge that, because of the opposing positions of the two Chinas – and their need to garner support for their differing causes, especially when it came to amassing votes at the level of the United Nations – individual countries, no matter how small (and perhaps, the smaller the better)were being made the recipients of the surfeit of gifts and the beneficiaries of the protagonists’ largesse.
Then came the local elections of 2006 … and St. Lucia reverted to UWP rule. In what has proven to be one of the most incomprehensible moves by any government in the region in recent history, the Cabinet of Ministers, having entertained offers from both Chinas, apparently first took a decision to break with China and resume ties with Taiwan … as per Cabinet Conclusion and memorandum; then on the day that the agreement with Taiwan was signed, there was apparently a desire to reconsider that position and remain with Mainland China – ensuing in a confrontation that, many claim, was responsible for the death of the Then Prime Minister, Sir John Compton … and the dismissal from Cabinet of the Foreign Affairs Minister.

As it happens, lately, during the course of elections in Taiwan, the Opposition, who are apparently in favour of a reunification of the two Chinas, won by a landslide, leaving the sitting President – who is soon himself to face the electorate in a bid to retain his position – as the only vestige of an adherence to the Two-China, independent Taiwan policy.
The question now remains: in the case that this President were to lose his election bid, what would the incentive be, for the continuation of a showering of gifts on small countries whose voices at the United Nations would no longer be required?
From a purely philanthropic point of view, it is to be hoped that a united China, with its ever-increasingly-strengthening economy, would desire to continue to retain its friendship with us and occasionally help us out whenever it is perceived that we are in dire straits … something that the other countries – who probably see us as a kind of underprivileged cousin – with whom we also enjoy friendly relations, are wont to do.
But insofar as the bending over backward to curry favour with us is concerned (the kind of attention we received back in the days of the Cold War between the Eastern and Western powers, for example), we may soon just be looking back at that era with nostalgia.
Why they have not yet stopped, is already mildly confusing.
Like the good old green-gold banana days, it will undoubtedly become a thing of the past.