China is not putting any pressure on Taiwan’s last diplomatic ally in Africa, the Kingdom of Eswatini, to switch to Beijing, but believes it is just a matter of time before that happens, a senior Chinese diplomat said yesterday.
China has become increasingly vocal about its desire to win away the country, formerly known as Swaziland, from Taiwan, even as the Swazi government has denounced Beijing for playing “mind games” and says it has no desire to ditch Taipei.
Eswatini is to be the only African country not represented at a major summit between China and the continent opening in Beijing next week, where Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is likely to offer new loans and aid for Africa.
Speaking at a news briefing, China’s special envoy for Africa Xu Jinghu (許鏡湖) said the issue of Eswatini and its lack of ties to Beijing was “an important question,” but it was up to them to take the initiative.
“On this issue we won’t exert any pressure. We’ll wait for the time to be right,” Xu said. “I believe this day will come sooner or later.”
Taiwan has formal ties with only 17 nations, many of them small, less-developed nations in Central America and the Pacific, including Belize and Nauru.
Taiwan has vowed to fight China’s “increasingly out of control” behavior after Taipei last month lost another diplomatic ally to Beijing when El Salvador became the third country to switch allegiances to China this year.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has vowed not to bow to Chinese pressure, and Taipei has accused Beijing of offering generous aid and loan packages to lure its allies across, charges China strongly denies.
Cheng Tao (程濤), a former head of the Africa division at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the news briefing that he had been involved in talks with African countries about abandoning Taiwan and recognizing China, and that money requests had come up.
“They said that while we want to establish diplomatic ties with China, we hope China can give us certain support financially,” Cheng said, without naming the nations he had been in talks with. “They were very blunt.”
“We told them [that] establishing ties is a political decision. It’s not a deal,” he added.
China’s hostility to Taiwan has grown since Tsai’s election, as Beijing fears that she wishes to push for formal independence, a red line for China.
Tsai has said she wants to maintain the “status quo,” but will defend Taiwan’s democracy.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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