Beijing is entrenching its business and economic interests in Eswatini in an increasingly successful courtship of Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Africa, Semafor Africa said in a report on Tuesday.
The kingdom of Eswatini has long supported Taiwan and was the only one of Africa’s 54 nations to decline to attend last week’s triennial China-Africa summit in Beijing, the media outlet said.
Yet, the southern African nation is “quietly warming to China” as an influx of Chinese “enterprises, businesspeople and even state actors” dig “deep roots in Eswatini’s economy,” it said, citing sources in the local business community.
Photo: AP
Ambassador to Eswatini Jeremy Liang (梁洪昇) was cited as saying that a “significant number of Chinese nationals” flowing into Eswatini, a nation of 1.2 million people, would eventually “undermine” Taiwan’s diplomatic mission.
In another indication of strengthening ties, Eswatini mines authority head Guduza Dlamini and a high-profile local entrepreneur led a delegation late year, allegedly to talk with Chinese investors and pave the way for establishing diplomatic relations, it said.
Eswatini government spokesman Alpheous Nxumalo had denied that the delegation’s mission was to initiate dialogue about the kingdom switching diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, the report said.
That statement is belied by Eswatini’s awarding of a US$165 million project to build the Mpakeni Embankment Dam to Beijing-owned ChinaPower, the outlet said.
The Eswatini government said at the time that even though the kingdom has “yet to establish formal diplomatic relations” with China, it recognizes ChinaPower’s “brand influence in the southern African region.”
Taiwan established an embassy at Mbabane, the capital of Eswatini, in 1968, the year it declared its independence from the UK.
So far, Eswatini has resisted Beijing’s calls for it to cut ties with Taiwan, including threats to sever all economic ties. The kingdom is one of the Taiwan’s 12 diplomatic allies.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS