The Communist Party of Swaziland wholly supports the view of the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that the efforts of the Chinese province of Taiwan to gain a foothold in Southern Africa by fostering relations with the Mswati regime of Swaziland should be rebuffed.

The Chinese province of Taiwan is not recognised by the international community or any intergovernmental organisations as a state entity. The efforts by the breakaway province to pose as a bona fide nation state have always been designed as a means of destabilising the PRC.

The creation of the province of Taiwan as a nation state was rooted in the struggle by communist forces against reactionary forces which ended in victory for the communists in 1949. The reactionaries withdrew from mainland China to Taiwan. There they set up a decades-long opposition to the People’s Republic.

Taiwan has no interest in helping tackle the developmental needs of Swaziland or any other country in our region. Its sole purpose for sealing trade and manufacturing deals with Mswati, as well as offering the bloated monarch prime medical attention, is to appear credible on the international stage. It is pathetic that the upstart province has chosen Swaziland – surely one of the most dysfunctional dictatorships around – to strut its stuff.

The CPS sympathises with China’s indignation at Swaziland’s courting of the province of Taiwan. We look to a time, when democratic normality reigns in our country instead of a crackpot king, where China will be a solid partner of a free country and help build the capacity of our people in return for fair trade deals.

Issued by the Communist Party of Swaziland