By Owei Lakemfa
Taiwan is a defined territory with claims to being a sovereign state. This is partly because powerful countries like the United States, US; Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the European Union member countries, maintain strong informal diplomatic and economic relations with it.
Claiming to be the Republic of China, ROC, Taiwan is the world’s leading producer of advanced semiconductors with a GDP of over $34,000. It also possesses impressive military capability, including Abraham tanks high-altitude and ballistic missiles.
Taiwan has the mentality of the butterfly which because it has wings and can fly, assumes it is a bird. But in reality, a person is who he is, not what he claims to be. In this wise, Taiwan, despite its claims of being sovereign in the last 77 years, is not a state. Even its pretentious seating as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, UNSC, for 26 years from 1945, could not confer on it the status of a sovereign state.
This reality of Taiwan’s inferior stature in world affairs was brought home to it on April 22, 2026 when its President, Lai Ching-te, decided to visit Eswatini, the African country formerly known as Swaziland. His mission was to participate in King Mswati III’s 58th birthday and 40th coronation.
This had seemed a simple, direct diplomatic event between two entities with supposed diplomatic relations. In fact, Eswatini is the only African country with diplomatic relations with Taipei.
Now, China, which has historical claims over Taiwan, did not scramble aircraft in the air to stop the Taiwanese President’s flight nor, waste resources deploying warships. It did not even seem to have noticed the Taiwanese preparations.
All Lai Ching-te realised was that he could not fly to his destination because three African countries; Madagascar, Seychelles and Mauritius denied him permission to fly over their territories. Taiwan wailed that the refusal of the countries were due to strong pressures by China accompanied with “economic coercion”. This may well be true, but the fact is that Taiwan is not recognised as an independent country and its aircraft cannot be granted permission to overfly these countries. It is like the Mayor of London or Governor of California claiming to be a sovereign and seeking permission to overfly Israel.
The issue I am raising here is not the politics, but the deft diplomatic moves of China that has almost rendered Taiwan invisible in the world. Not even its main backers like US that uses Taiwan as a pawn in its chess game with China, has enough confidence or the will to establish diplomatic relations with it.
When I was a young man, it was alleged that Taiwan made inferior goods. So poor quality products from any part of the world were said to be “Made in Taiwan”.
This may not be true, but the truth today is that Taiwan’s purported sovereignty as a state is in reality, a fake product that can only be “Made in Taiwan” which even its main backers are not buying.
China and Taiwan were or are actually, one country. After the Second World War, civil war broke out in the country between pro-Western forces led by General Chiang kai-shek and patriotic forces led by Chairman Mao Tse-Tung which the latter won.
But rather than surrender, the Kai-shek forces in December 1949 fled to a part of the country called Taiwan which had been under Japanese colonialism until 1945.
There, backed by Western forces, it tried to establish a rival government and break up the country. But China maintained its insistence that the country must remain united, hence its “One China” principle.
In my analysis, if China, given its military strength, had been like the US which uses force across the world, it would have overran Taiwan no matter the consequences. But China’s diplomacy weighs more on non-kinectic approaches.
Part of its thinking is that the people in Taiwan are Chinese so it would not make sense to go spill Chinese blood. Rather, it has used diplomacy so successfully that no major country in the world recognises Taiwan as a sovereign country; none in Europe, North America and Africa, except Eswatini.
China had used the same tactics in winn ing back Hong Kong from British colonialism. The latter had colonised Hong Kong in 1841-1842. In 1898, Britain allegedly obtained a 99-year lease on Hong Kong. In 1949, China went communist, and it was doubtful Britain with its history of diplomatic duplicity would return Hong Hong to China, especially when the latter is communist and Hong Hong had been built into a capitalist financial centre.
Protests broke out ahead of the handover date with many killed. China applied diplomacy and in 1984 a Sino-British Joint Declaration was made with Britain agreeing to leave in 1997 and, China accepting to allow Hong Kong run its pro-capitalist system for 50 years after the July 1, 1997 handover. This became known as the “One country, two systems” constitutional policy of China. So, although communism was sacrosanct for China, it was willing to bend backwards to win back Hong Kong, without firing a shot.
China is not neutral in world diplomacy; like other countries, it defends its interests. So, while its hands might be in various cases, it does not go around like the American cow boy shooting up the world. It does not apply the sledge hammer on every issue. In fact, it hardly uses direct force. It also does not dictate to other countries as its American counterpart is wont to do. China is hardly found in any war, but all countries, including the US and its allies, know better than threaten it. As we say in Africa, a tiger does not display its ‘tigritude’. Animals that come across a tiger, know it can be a formidable enemy.
Perhaps, if the US had adopted the diplomatic style of China, it would have avoided the bruising and, sometimes, humiliating conflict with Iran. At a point, the mighty US cried for an international coalition to force the Strait of Hormuz open. It was ignored.
Then Iran willingly opened the strait only for the US to impose restrictions leading to another closure.
Maybe if US had adopted a more reconciliatory diplomacy, the world would have been spared the horrors of toddlers and children being bombed in Gaza and Iran. Also, it might have been spared the comedy of the US President and Commander-in-Chief, Donald Trump taking on Pope Leo and engaging in the marathon reading of the Bible. Even at this stage, countries can rethink their diplomacy in the interest of humanity.
