Chad's decision to break diplomatic ties with Taiwan and reestablish links with Beijing is motivated by financial self-interest and the advantages of a relationship with a major global force, observers said on Sunday.
"The interest of the state outweighs all other considerations," said a senior Chadian diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity.
Chad, a desperately poor country, menaced by rebellions, in conflict in different ways with neighboring Sudan and the World Bank, broke off relations with China after 25 years in favor of Taipei in 1997.
"For N'Djamena and [President Idriss] Deby [Itno], in view of the general situation it's better to have Beijing with you than against you," said a French specialist, who found nothing surprising about Chad's change of heart, other than its rapidity.
"Apparently the Chadian delegation sent to Khartoum in July [to repair links damaged by Chad's accusations against Sudan of backing rebels] got in touch with the Chinese ambassador in Sudan," he said.
Chad's chief preoccupation is financial, he said.
"Chad will have a lot to gain economically with Beijing, besides the resumption of all the projects left behind by Taiwan," the diplomat said.
Taiwan has provided Chad with major financial and technical aid in several areas -- including roads, water supply, and education -- but "one can imagine that this U-turn will be accompanied by Chinese financial backing greater than that of Taiwan," the French specialist said.
The alliance with Beijing "which appears as the anti-World Bank" strengthens Chad's hand in dealing with the bank, he said.
Chad and the bank have been at loggerheads since January over the spending of oil revenues and the bank suspended payments until an agreement was signed last month.
From now on "if the World Bank imposes too many conditions, N'Djamena will tell it it has a ready alternative: Beijing," he said.
Oil is a major factor in the resumption of ties between Beijing and N'Djamena. Chinese companies are interested in several blocs in Chad but have so far not been present except indirectly through participation in companies holding exploitation rights.
Now they can establish a direct presence and should rapidly take over from Taiwan's Chinese Petroleum Corp, which was granted a major exploration authorization in January.
In the longer term Chad could see an extension of the oil pipeline built in Sudan by China so it can send oil to Port Sudan, giving it a bargaining chip in its dispute with the consortium transporting Chadian crude to Cameroon.
A further important factor in Chad's switch is the right of veto in the UN Security Council held by China as one of the five permanent members. Chad faces internal upheavals from the conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan which has seen 200,000 refugees arrive on its soil and created tensions with Khartoum, a traditional ally of China.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater