Its largesse may still help prop up the economies of some of the continent's poorest countries, but Taiwan is being slowly squeezed out of Africa as China's presence grows ever stronger.
Malawi last week became the fourth African country to switch diplomatic allegiance to Beijing since the Democratic Progressive Party came to power in 2000, leaving only Burkina Faso, Gambia, Swaziland and Sao Tome and Principe with links to Taipei.
"Malawi was afraid it would be left behind," said Edge Kanyongolo, a political analyst at the University of Malawi. "It was a bandwagon mentality."
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika's government has remained tight-lipped on what kind of sweeteners were offered, with some reports saying Beijing would fund a long-talked of waterway linking the landlocked country with the Indian Ocean.
"Malawians should look at the larger picture rather than talking about money because Malawi is not for sale," Malawian Foreign Minister Joyce Banda said.
Banda said the Cabinet had discussed the switch for the past three years and the final decision was made "after considering the socio-economic benefits to Malawi. The country stands to gain more from its relationship with China."
There is little disputing that Malawi, 60 percent of whose 12 million citizens live on less than US$1 a day, has gained much during the 42 years of ties with Taiwan.
Taiwanese cash, for example, paid for the only hospital in the north of the country, serving an estimated 1 million people, as well as underwriting many of the country's major highways and landmark buildings.
In Sao Tome and Principe, with its population of only 140,000, Taiwan's money has helped pay for a US$15 million power plant as well as the construction of a high school in the second city of Trindade.
As Sao Tome President Fradique de Menezes, who recently turned down an invitation to visit China, said: "We have relations with Taiwan which so far we have no reason to call into question."
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh meanwhile flies around in a plane paid for by Taipei, which also picked up the US$3.2 million tab to build a highway between the cities of Essau and Kerewan, known as the Taiwan Road.
As for Swaziland, Foreign Minister Mathendele Dlamini said that: "Taiwan has invested immensely in the development of the country, such that most of our rural people have electricity and water because of the Taiwanese."
"Taiwan has become more of a brother than a diplomatic friend, so it would not make sense for Swaziland to dump Taiwan," he said.
In Burkina Faso, a foreign ministry official described the ties with Taiwan as "exemplary," little wonder perhaps given Taiwan's help in financing a sports stadium and two international conference centers in the capital Ouagadougou.
However, the official also questioned whether the flow of cash from Taiwan could forever be reason enough not to embrace the regime in Beijing.
"At the moment, there are no signs of a break in ties but I have to ask myself how much longer this can go on for," the official said on condition of anonymity.
In return for tranches of aid, Taiwan expects its allies to push its case to join the UN and other international organizations.
Taiwan hosted a summit with the heads of its African allies last September which was perhaps most notable for being only a fraction of the size of a get-together hosted by China in November 2006.
The guests at that summit in Beijing included leaders of Liberia, Senegal and Chad, all of whom had been persuaded into changing alliances since the election of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in 2000.
The pomp and ceremony of the Beijing summit amply illustrated the importance that China now attaches to Africa, seen as a vital source of raw materials to fuel its economic boom.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
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
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