Mysterious ad says mainland China talking to Belize
In other news from the world of diplomacy a strange newspaper advertisement has observers wondering whether the seemingly unbreakable ties between Belize and Taiwan may not be under some pressure. The quarter page paid ad in last weekend’s Amandala recounts a visit to Belize made over the Easter holidays by Mr. Chen Jinghua, ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Jamaica. That’s mainland China, the world’s biggest nation, which considers Taiwan a renegade province and not a separate country. Those visitors must have been the only ones here on business instead of pleasure, as according to the ad, “It is said that Ambassador Chen met with senior government officials during his trip. The two sides exchanged views on developing their relations and the Belizean side expressed its interest in establishing an official institution with China on reciprocal basis.”
If true, that’s big news, because Taiwan is Belize’s biggest benefactor and Belize is one of only a handful of nations that have opted to officially recognize the island democracy, snubbing its much more powerful communist neighbour. So which “senior government officials” spent Easter with the P.R.C. delegation? According to C.E.O. in the ministry of Foreign Affairs Amalia Mai, all of her ministry’s top brass were out of the country that weekend in Campeche, Mexico, including Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay. Mai said that if the Chinese spoke to officials from elsewhere in government, she didn’t know about it.
The core of Taiwan’s international support comes from Central America plus a few states in the Caribbean … and in recent years the mainland has successfully wooed several small nations to its side. Will Belize be next?
Again, to quote Mai: “Belize’s relations with Taiwan could not be stronger” and she points out that next week Prime Minister Said Musa will be making an official visit to the island nation and in May the Taiwanese Foreign Minister will be in Belize for a meeting with Central American Foreign Ministers.
