EMASWATI CAN NOW GET CHINA VISAS BUT ...

PRETORIA - Half a loaf is better than nothing. The Pretoria-based Embassy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has since reviewed its initial stance to restrict emaSwati from getting visas to travel to that country for trade.

However, PRC has introduced new rules that citizens of the country should  abide by.
At a press briefing on Monday at his official residence in Pretoria, Lin Songtian, the Ambassador of PRC to South Africa, first announced that emaSwati would now get the visas.

In fact, he said the embassy has started issuing them to some of the country’s businesspeople.
He pointed to the fact that the visas were being issued with strings attached. He explained that emaSwati would be granted single entry visas.
This means that a person’s visa expires upon return to the country.

The ambassador said they used to grant multiple visas to emaSwati, which expired in six months. 
“All emaSwati must come to Pretoria; I want them to apply for the visa from me. All the other visa centres are not accessible to the people of Eswatini. We used to have three centres in South Africa, which were accessible to emaSwati. Now, they must come to me for the visas,” he said.

Resolution

He then made it clear that all the changes were being effected under the new China resolution: ‘No Diplomatic Relations, No business with China’.
“Let me state that we have taken a resolution to ban Eswatini from trading with Mainland China because it does not have diplomatic relations with China, but we thought it was wise to start with restrictions that are not stricter. This is the beginning of tough times to come if you continue disrespecting us,” Songtian said.

He used the word ‘embarrassing’.
“You are embarrassing us in the UN forums; calling upon the United Nations to disregard its resolution by recognising our province. Why are you doing this?” he asked rhetorically.

Songtian said the granting of the single entry to the kingdom’s businesspeople was just a precautionary measure put in place to test the sincerity and commitment of the government leaders to the One China policy and United Nations Resolution 2758, that affirmed PRC as the only legitimate government of China.

It was passed on October 25, 1971. The resolution replaced the Republic of China (ROC) with PRC as a permanent member of the Security Council in the United Nations.

“We want to see if Eswatini leaders will get our message clearly that Taiwan is our province. How would you feel if China were to recognise a region in Eswatini and not the entire kingdom? That’s what you are actually doing,” he said.
From now onwards, Songtian also announced that Eswatini’s businesspeople travelling to Mainland China would be made to fill in a special form in which they would state the names of their trade partners in that country.

“We have to keep data for the companies in Mainland China that do business with Eswatini people,” he said.
He told the journalist that a close monitoring of the kingdom’s attitude towards PRC shall be done regularly to ascertain relevant and timely measures that his government could, perhaps, put in place to have its message clearly understood and fully embraced by Eswatini.
Notably, Songtian declared his love for the King and all emaSwati.

Patient

However, he said they had been patient with the Kingdom for a long time in the hope that it would cut ties with Taiwan to recognise a legitimate sovereign State approved by the UN.
He expressed his optimism that Eswatini would respect the resolutions of the UN which succinctly stipulated that Taiwan was not a sovereign State.
He said the UN resolution formed part of international law, which the country should uphold with decorum, particularly because Eswatini was a member.
Another change is that PRC is no longer interested in setting up a trade house in the country.

“Initially, we wanted to set up a Trade House in Eswatini. We are no longer interested in it. Instead, we want to establish a fully-fledged embassy,” he said.
The diplomat said the United States, UK and other powerful countries did not have embassies in Taipei.

There are eight countries with embassies in Taiwan and these are -
l Belize.
l Eswatini.
l Guatemala.
l Haiti.
l Honduras.
l Holy See.
l Marshall Islands.
l Nauru.

Songtian pointed out that Eswatini was too small and very easy for China to develop in a short period of time. He added that a couple of Chinese Yuan could provide the necessary infrastructure for the entire country.
He was optimistic that Beijing had the full capacity to put tar on all the country’s roads.
He said the labour cost was low in Eswatini. He said their research reflected a humble, disciplined and committed workplace that could perform better than South Africans.
He pointed out that Beijing wanted to invest in the country as it was the only country in Africa that had not benefitted from its E225 billion (USD15 billion) free grant for least developed countries like Eswatini.
He said countries were not expected to pay back the grant.
Nevertheless, he clarified that they had loans for infrastructure development, which could be repaid in a period of 20 years at an interest rate of three per cent.
Songtian mentioned that Mainland China disbursed E2.25 trillion (US$150 billion) for foreign direct investment on an annual basis to assist Africa develop.
Develop
Pertaining to Eswatini, the ambassador said their plan was to develop the country’s tourism by encouraging one or two million of their 1.4 billion people to come to Eswatini to visit and spend their money.
“In that way your economy will grow,” he said.
Asked about fears of the now famous debt trap phrase associated with Beijing, the diplomat pointed out that the West, particularly the USA, was scared of China’s emerging influence and potential dominance in the global market. He said they coined the phrase to make PRC look bad to least developing States in Africa. He wondered what China could do with those supposedly repossessed airports and railways. He explained that the truth of the matter was that Beijing devised a win-win strategy to help countries that failed to service their loans.
He elucidated further that Beijing, instead of becoming a creditor, chose to be a shareholder in a project funded by it until the loan was fully settled.
He said China chose a company that would make sure the project was profitable enough to sustain jobs and also service the loan.
The envoy allayed fears that Mainland China repossessed airports, schools, bridges and railway lines.
He said this was propaganda and evil mechanisation orchestrated by the West to besmirch his country’s image in the eyes of the unsuspecting nations.
He said China’s relationship with Africa was still new, and his country found some States on this continent heavily indebted.
Songtian mentioned that they had been nice to Taiwan for many years, not wanting to use force as Mainland China had never been at war or started a war before, except sending its troops to UN’s peacekeeping missions.
“We have countries that have been in war more than 200 times. We don’t believe in aggression,” he said.
The ambassador also said China had never colonised any country, a testimony of its peaceful friendship with all nations in the world, including Eswatini.

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