Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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RECENT EVENTS suggest that China is seeking to pressure Taiwan in Africa.
Notably, Taiwanese delegates to the 11th Our Ocean Conference were denied entry to a side event, due to the organizers refusing to acknowledge their Taiwanese passports as valid travel documents. Subsequently, two delegates were detained for 20 hours by Kenyan authorities, during which their passports and cell phones were confiscated, even as the Taiwanese government was reportedly aware of the incident and sought to intervene.
After this incident, Taiwanese delegates did not attend the 11th Our Ocean Conference and instead withdrew. Taiwan has suggested that Chinese pressure was behind such actions by Kenyan authorities. The delegates were academics who were not members of the government, though the Ocean Affairs Council also hoped to attend the event. But after the detentions, it was thought that this would antagonize the Kenyan government. Taiwan’s foreign aid agency, the ICDF, as well as members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, would have originally attended alongside the academics and members of the Ocean Affairs Council.
Taiwan has attended the Our Ocean Conference in the past without incident, since delegates began to participate in 2015. Other locations in which the Our Ocean Conference has been held include Chile, Greece, Indonesia, Palau, Panama, South Korea, and the United States. The conference was itself originally an initiative of the US government.
In April, Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Seychelles abruptly revoked overflight permissions for the plane that President Lai Ching-te originally was to visit Taiwan’s sole African diplomatic ally, Eswatini, onboard. At the time, this was seen as China flexing its muscles in terms of using its influence over African countries to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. Lai still later traveled to Eswatini aboard King Mswati III’s private airplane.
Not long after, in May, the world’s largest digital rights convention–RightsCon–was cancelled due to pressure from Zambian authorities. This was reportedly over the participation of Taiwanese CSOs at the event, who were expected to criticize the Chinese government. RightsCon would have taken place in the Mulungushi International Convention Center, which was donated by the Chinese government in 2022, with a 30 million USD grant to renovate the facility for the 2022 African Union Heads of State Summit.
Taiwanese participants were initially informed that they would not likely be allowed to enter Zambia, as a result of Access Now learning of Chinese government interference. Afterwards, the Zambian government announced the postponement of RightsCon altogether, without any formal communication with conference organizers Access Now.
Even as Taiwan remains de jure unrecognized by the majority of the world’s countries, Taiwanese civil society has been proactive in efforts to expand Taiwan’s international space. Nevertheless, it can also be expected that China will take measures against Taiwanese civil society actors, in this respect. Given China’s strong influence in Africa at present, it may not surprise that Taiwan has come under pressure there.