Category: One China Policy
Taiwan Was on Wang Yi’s Mind When He Reached Out to Three African Foreign Ministers
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with three of his African counterparts via three separate phone calls this week. The Foreign Minister spoke with Nigeria's Geoffrey Onyeama, Kenya's Raychelle Omamo and Nasser Bourita from Morocco. It's not clear from the accounts, either on ...
Somaliland Should Brace Itself For What Comes Next
All week I've been wondering why China's response to the opening of the new Taiwan representative office in the capital of Somaliland had been so subdued. Normally, whenever Taipei ventures out into the world to expand its diplomatic presence, Beijing responds almost instantly with ...
China’s Foreign Ministry Issues First Statement on Taiwan Opening a Rep Office in Somaliland
The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded on Tuesday to Taiwan's opening of a new representative office earlier this week in the self-declared state of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa. At his regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, spokesman Zhao Lijian repeated Beijing's longstanding position that "Taiwan ...
Taiwan’s Flag Now Flying Again in Africa
Taiwan opened its newest mission in Africa today at a ceremony in Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared state of Somaliland. Although the new representative office is not quite the same as formal diplomatic recognition, it's certainly close and marks the rare win for President Tsai ...
Which Way Somaliland: Taiwan or China?
Somaliland is the middle of a tense courtship between China and Taiwan, leading to conflicting signals about which way the self-declared nation in the Horn of Africa is leaning. On the one hand, if you follow the Twitter accounts of Mohamed Hagi, the newly arrived ambassador to ...
Chinese Media Coverage of the Xi-Lungu Call Didn’t Say Anything About Debt Relief But Did Mention the One China Policy
Chinese official news coverage of Monday's call between President Xi Jinping and Zambian leader Edgar Lungu highlighted the stark disparity between the two countries' current political priorities. Neither the Xinhua news agency nor the China Daily ...
China’s Ambassador to Somalia Attempts to Downplay African Debt Concerns
China's Ambassador to Somalia, Qin Jian, is on something of a Twitter tear these past few days. He's posted dozens of short commentaries on everything from Taiwan (not surprising given the recent Somaliland-Taiwan announcement), Somalia's potential for natural resource ...
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Zambian President Edgar Lungu might have been surprised to hear that the big takeaway from his call on Monday with Xi Jinping wasn't debt relief or anything to do with COVID-19. In the unlikely event that he opened a copy of the China Daily newspaper on Tuesday ...
Taiwan-Somaliland Deal Sparks Debate About Taipei’s Presence in Africa
Taiwan's recent effort to revive its diplomatic presence in Africa by signing an agreement with the self-declared state of Somaliland to set up representative offices in each other's territories sparked an immediate wave of predictable responses. China and Somalia denounced the ...
With an Eye on Annoying China, the U.S. National Security Council Praises Taiwan’s Outreach in East Africa
Just hours after Secretary Pompeo's critical comments of the Chinese presence in Africa, the U.S. National Security Council followed up with a provocative tweet that praised Taiwan's recent agreement with the self-declared state of Somaliland. On July 1, Taiwan ...