BY CHARLES ONUNAIJU
In what would have be a propaganda coup, suggesting a crack in the Africa’s diplomatic and foreign policy consensus of “One China” policy, the increasingly isolated “Taiwan separatist” leader Mr. Lai Ching-te attempted an over-fly of three African countries-Mauritus, Madagascar and Seychelles to visit the 1.3 million landlocked kingdom of Eswatini, former Swaziland in Southern Africa.
Eswatini is the only laggard of the Africa’s common position and the global consensus on “One-China” principle, with Taiwan as an inalienable part of China’s sovereign expression. With an express ‘no’ to copting their respective air-spaces to buttress its separatist ambition, Mr Lai. Ching-te and his co-travelers resorted to a vile subterfuge of smuggling himself and a clique of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) to Eswatini in a thoroughly ignominious manner. The push back and blunt refusal by the three African countries at the willful attempt to coopt their respective airspaces deprived the separatist clique, the oxygen of their futile effort to make a grandstanding of Taiwan “independence” beyond the delusions of its proponents within the increasingly isolated circles of the DPP.
Within the Taiwan region itself, the cross-straits relations are rising to an all-time high with businesses, cultural, youth, political party exchanges soaring to unprecedented levels. With record levels of cross-strait engagement converging on the consensus of national re-unification, the shrinking voice of separatism can only get more desperate and this fact is reflected in how Mr. Lai Ching-te smuggled himself to Africa’s soil despite an obvious and implied rebuke that the continent has no interest playing the “Taiwan card”, a favorite of the west’s deep state that seek perennially to contain and constrain China.
Despite been currently out of the way in the Africa’s consensus on “One China” policy, Eswatini would certainly come round to the inevitable conclusion, that this core and sensitive national concerns of territorial integrity and sovereignty is of supreme concern for China as it is to Africa countries, including Eswatini and is an invaluable political asset that is not trade-able for any type of political or financial exigency.
There are few major countries in the world that have demonstrated an unassailable sensitivity and respect to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Africa states than Beijing, and for Eswatini, nothing can be more fatal than enabling the separatist ambition of few hot heads in the Taiwan region of China, derail from mutual respect that is central to Africa and China Cooperation.
That the ground is shifting very fast under the feet of the separatist clique in China’s Taiwan region was evident with the high profile visit to the mainland by the leader of the largest party in the Island regional parliament. Last month, the chairwoman of the Kuomintang (KMT) or the Nationalist Party, Madam Cheng Li- Wun arrived in the Mainland, reaffirming that all citizens across the straits are proud Chinese. The itinerary of the KMT leader to the mainland included Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, a place that is significant to the deep historical connection between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and KMT, as well as emotional and cultural bonds across the straits.
It was also the scene of the Japan’s most heinous crime against the Chinese that left an indelible and profound shared memory among all the Chinese people across the straits. Recently, the Japanese prime minister insensitively chosen to play the Taiwan ‘separatist’ card and was roundly rebuked by all Chinese across the straits.
Madam Cheng-Li Wun visit, added a fresh momentum to vigorous cross- strait cooperation. The visit did not as expected, resolve all issues as relating to the left overs of the Chinese history but certainly replaced confrontation with communication and conflict with dialogue, thereby taking the sail of the wind of the separatist ambition fueled by inventing mortal and unresolvable conflict across the strait.
While meeting the General secretary of The Communist Party of China (CPC) Xi Jinping in Beijing, chairwoman Li-Wun said “there is no denying that, over more than a century of interaction, the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party has seen many twists and turns. Yet what we have both pursued, throughout, has always been to lead the Chinese nation from decline to rejuvenation”.
Further underscoring and reinforcing the consensus on the common homeland for all Chinese, she said “in fact, peace and reconciliation across the strait should be only the starting point of joint efforts of our two parties. We bear an even greater responsibility and mission toward the people on both sides of the strait and toward all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation.
Therefore, the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” must be a shared rejuvenation for people on both sides of the strait”. She praised the achievements of the mainland under the leadership core of general secretary Xi Jinping, noting particularly “the eradication of absolute poverty and the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects” as “extra ordinary accomplishments”. she noted that “although people on the two sides of the straits live under different systems, we shall respect one another and also move toward one another”.
General Secretary Xi Jinping told KMT delegation “despite the vicissitudes of history, Taiwan compatriots have never forgotten that their roots are on the mainland, that their hearts are with the motherland and that their souls belong to the Chinese nation”.
Despite “changes unseen in a century that is accelerating across the world”, General Secretary Xi opined that “no matter how the international landscape or the situation in Taiwan strait may evolve, the overarching direction of human development and progress will not change, the prevailing trend toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will not change, and the great tide of compatriots on both sides of the strait becoming closer, more connected and coming together will not change”, underscoring that “this is the verdict of history” and acknowledging “we are fully confident on it”.
Domestically, the overwhelming consensus of China’s national re-unification and rejuvenation across the straits like a specter is hunting the increasingly isolated and desperate separatist clique and under the cover of darkness, they would scurry across to any spot that would offer a temporary reprieve to the dead-on-arrival separatist ambition. Some seeking to crack the granite of Africa’s “One China Policy” by over flying the airspaces of some of the countries, in the region, Mr. Lai Ching-te got a decisive rebuke.
What he did next was not only shameful but a remarkably loud echo that the project of his “Taiwan independence” has turned out a contraband smuggled through dark tunnels. The question arises as to why Mr Ching-te persist in doomed affair. Simply because certain extraneous forces are yet to reconcile themselves to the rise of China and interference in the country’s domestic affairs by playing the Taiwan card offer some prospect to undermine and contain China.
In a meaningful push back to the drumbeat of the West to instigate crisis in the strait and profit from it, the chairwoman of the KMT, Madam Cheng Li-Wun told the America’s news cable, CNN, few days to the U.S president Donald Trump visit to China, that “Taiwan does not want to become the next Ukraine”, insisting that her approach is less confrontation and more dialogue, aligning to the overall trend towards China,s national re- unification.
Mr. Onunaiju is a international affairs analyst based in Abuja.
