Contested actors and moral strategies in the diplomacy of Taiwan and the Central Tibetan Administration

Taiwan and the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) are amongst the most prominent political entities that lack de jure recognition and have had to confront ongoing challenges to their existence in international life. Faced with persistent insecurity, their diplomacy is subject to multiple legal, political, and practical constraints. How do these contested actors skirt multiple limitations to conduct diplomacy? How does China's diplomacy towards them interplay with their own diplomatic practices? Drawing on Bourdieu's notion of symbolic capital; this paper argues that the two actors actively deploy moral capital (as a resource) to manage China's counter-secession diplomacy. Through an analysis of their contemporary diplomatic practices, three moral strategies were identified: consolidating moral solidarity through quasi-official networks; deploying moral language in social media; and contrasting their own responsible behaviour with China's perceived irresponsibility. In doing so, far from being passive and powerless, Taiwan and the CTA inventively conduct diplomacy through global moral appeals and in differentiating their moral actions from the other's 'immoral' practices. This paper adds to the literature on the diplomatic practices of non-sovereign state actors by shedding light on the management of China's diplomacy by Taiwan and the CTA and how moral capital is deployed strategically.