Instead of resorting to checkbook diplomacy as China does to beckon to African countries, Taiwan donates rice and food to help victims of famine in Africa, an official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) concluded a diplomatic tour of Africa by offering a large amount of foreign aid and debt cancelation to the seven Africa states that he visited, Deputy Director of the ministry's Department of African Affairs Wu Te-yang (吳德陽) said.
Beijing's offer of financial aid to the African nations has sharply increased to US$181 million, the ministry said.
"It would be a good thing if China purely wants to help economic development in Africa," Wu said.
"We hope that China is not playing tricks in secret to suppress Taiwan's international space," he said.
Wu said it was easy to tell who was using "checkbook diplomacy" by looking at the foreign aid that African nations obtained.
Rather than writing checks, Taiwan cooperated with the US charity Feed the Children and donated about 5,000 tonnes of rice, costing about US$2 million, to Kenya and Malawi, he added.
Feed the Children is a non-profit relief organization that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to children and families who lack these essentials because of famine, war, poverty or natural disasters.
Through World Vision, Taiwan also donated 7,000 tonnes of rice, costing about US$2.8million, to Swaziland, Wu added.
The ministry has demanded that the food provisions be delivered to people instead of local governments or politicians, Wu said.
All the bags of grain were printed with "Love from Taiwan" to identify them as coming from Taiwan, Wu added.
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