Africa and Chinese crisis

The impact of the on-going China-Taiwan crisis is being felt not only by its neighbors or the Asian continent but also by other parts of the world.

China, one of the major military powers in the world, maintains that Taiwan is still a renegade province and as such, declares what it calls the "one China policy". On the other hand, Taiwan acts as an independent nation.

Each side argues intensively, trying to secure international support for its argument. For example, China is unhappy with nations that maintain close relations or accord diplomatic recognition to Taiwan as a sovereign nation.

Taiwan -- an economic tiger -- may not appreciate a nation that strictly upholds and respects only the "one China policy".

This crisis doesn't exclude African countries, and instead it currently infiltrating the African continent.

At the moment, about 10 out of the slightly over 30 nations which diplomatically recognize Taiwan are African. In other words, one third of them are African countries. A country takes sides in the crisis only after analyzing its national interest as well as any other important benefit it may derive.

Taiwan mainly compensates supporters with sweet economic assistance and this is probably the case with African countries that recognize Taiwan as an independent country.

What happened early this year in the West African state of Senegal is completely amazing. The said African state shifted diplomatic recognition from China to Taiwan. China, with its abundant technical expertise, compensates supporters that way, particularly the African countries which need technical expertise for various development projects.

In addition, China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is politically important and can influence crucial issues affecting the international community. The Senegalese incident perhaps prompted the recent Africa tour by the Chinese Premier, which took him down to the Organization of African Unity headquarters in Adis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

The story may be different as far as Nigeria is concerned. The government of Nigeria maintains good relations with China and some companies in China provide technical assistance to important projects in Nigeria, like in the railway sector. Trade relations with Taiwan are not bad. Though relations between Nigeria and China is getting closer. This happened particularly when Chinese leaders refused to cooperate with Nelson Mandela on his vigorous attempt to secure the international community's approval for an oil sanction against my country over the execution of Writer Ken- Sarowiwa.

Further, Nigeria needs support from Beijing for consideration as an additional permanent UN Security Council member, whose name is always on the list of possible considerations that will represent Africa.

As a true son of Africa, I strongly suggest that Nigeria's footsteps should be followed by other African nations in this Sino-Taiwanese crisis.

BUHARI ABDU

Jakarta