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MBABANE, Eswatini — China is building up its business and economic interests in Eswatini in a sign that Taiwan’s last African ally is gradually pivoting towards Beijing.
The southern African country was the only one of Africa’s 54 countries that declined to attend last week’s triennial China-Africa summit in Beijing. The kingdom of Eswatini has long refused to cut ties with Taiwan — even when Beijing has explicitly threatened to cut all trade with the African country because of it.
But, despite that official snub last week, members of the Eswatini’s business community told Semafor Africa that authorities are quietly warming to China. It is forcing Taipei to face up to the reality that Chinese enterprises, business people, and even state players are digging deep roots in the kingdom’s economy.
Taiwan’s ambassador to Eswatini, Jeremy Liang, told Semafor Africa that “a significant number of Chinese nationals” were pouring into the small landlocked country of 1.2 million people which would, in time, “undermine” his country’s special relationship with the kingdom.
In another sign of thawing relations with Beijing, a delegation led by the head of Eswatini’s mines authority Guduza Dlamini travelled to China with a high-profile local businessman in late 2023, reportedly to engage Chinese investors and to chart a way for the establishment of diplomatic relations.
Government spokesman Alpheous Nxumalo denied that the delegation’s mission had been to begin the process of establishing diplomatic relations.
And it’s not just private business people. Eswatini’s government in May 2023 awarded the state-owned PowerChina a $165 million tender to construct the vital Mpakeni Embankment Dam even while noting in a statement that Eswatini had “yet to establish diplomatic relations with China” it had recognized PowerChina for “its brand influence in the southern African region.”
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Taiwan opened an embassy in Mbabane in 1968, the same year the country won self-rule from the British. This relationship has endured even as other countries have switched allegiances to China. The One China policy — which has forced countries to pick either China or Taiwan as a formal diplomatic partner, and not both — has been the main catalyst in this exodus.
All but 12 of the world’s countries have remained loyal to Taipei, in the process foregoing Beijing’s promised billions of dollars in investment and loans for infrastructure development over the past two decades. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, the value of Chinese imports to Eswatini was $81.8 million in 2022.
The View From The Business Community
Eswatini publicly maintains its support for Taiwan but some Eswatini businesspeople are open in their support for a move that would favour establishing diplomatic relations with China. “We know that whatever Taiwan may want to provide, it cannot match the benefits offered by China, hence to us the China affiliation is the best deal,” said Mavela Sigwane, chairperson of the Federation of Eswatini Business Community.
Room for Disagreement
The Eswatini-Taiwan situation is unlikely to change anytime soon, says a long-time watcher of China-Africa affairs. In the last couple of years China has taken a somewhat relaxed approach with Eswatini rather than exerting overt pressure as in the past, explained Eric Olander, editor of China Global South Project. “While they are keen to encourage the king to switch allegiances, they know it’s not going to happen, at least in the near term, given King Mswati III’s strong statements in support of Taiwan,” said Olander. The strategy for now seems to be to wait the king out in the hope he eventually falls from power — which appeared possible in 2021. “Until that happens, Chinese business will take the lead in the kingdom while Beijing patiently waits for some kind of political opening.”