In the past month, the Chinese government has increased pressure on Eswatini, one of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies, in order to compel the small country to cease its diplomatic recognition of the ROC and to instead recognize the PRC. This has primarily taken the form of economic threats against Eswatini...
Following a five-day state visit to Swaziland by Tsai Ing-Wen last week, Tsai has called for creation of an “Africa plan” to develop stronger economic and political ties between Taiwan and Africa. One suspects that, much like the Tsai administration’s “New Southbound Policy”, this would also be with the aim of weaning Taiwan off of economic dependency on China. But one generally suspects that this would encounter many of the same challenges that the New Southbound Policy has. Furthermore, one must keep in mind that, like many of Taiwan's diplomatic allies, Swaziland is a country whose government has a questionable human rights record...
