00:00During Foreign Minister Lin Jialong's visit to Eswatini, he says he got updates on several
00:05projects that Taiwan's working on there that are part of this Taiwan model of diplomacy.
00:11I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about what this Taiwan model is and how do
00:15these projects fit into this strategy?
00:18There's quite a lot of flexibility in terms of what a Taiwan model of diplomacy is.
00:23They've also stressed commonality and values, but of course, Eswatini has a very different
00:28political system compared to Taiwan.
00:31So for countries like Eswatini, the Taiwan model basically means that there's more emphasis
00:37on investment, there's more emphasis on development.
00:41And this goes beyond the past model of improving public health or public services.
00:49It's about promoting economic development in a way that competes more directly with the
00:56PRC's efforts to put money into infrastructure and also resource extraction.
01:02So I suppose the Taiwan model is a bit different in the sense that it emphasizes a bit more of
01:08the sort of technical scaling up, technology transfer.
01:12And you said that Taiwan could be using these strategies to compete with China in the region.
01:17Can you talk a little bit about what China is doing?
01:19So the PRC has been trying to pour a lot of money into Africa.
01:24A lot of that has to go with infrastructure building, but also digital infrastructure, also
01:30resource extraction.
01:31So the PRC is big in mining.
01:33It's been pushing for these free trade agreements, which Eswatini has been left out.
01:38But a lot of those free trade agreements also have to do with the export of commodities to the PRC.
01:43So in that sense, what Taiwan is offering Eswatini is, you know, not so much the resource extraction
01:49bit, but the ability to develop some of its own industrial capacity in ways that perhaps
01:57will enable Eswatini to have its own sort of areas of technological excellence and to improve
02:05its resilience, especially if you look at the oil infrastructure.
02:08Do you think this Taiwan model could help Taiwan to gain new partners in Africa, or would this be
02:15pretty difficult given China's influence there?
02:17So Taiwan will probably try to offer what it can, but it is, to be honest, an uphill task,
02:24meaning to say that the PRC is pouring a lot of resources, not necessarily because it wants
02:29to isolate Taiwan.
02:31That's certainly part of the picture, but also because it wants to lock in its access to critical
02:37minerals and other commodities.
02:40In Taiwan's case, you know, if it wants access to things like rare earths and all that, it
02:46probably needs to, you know, build relationships as well.
02:49It's probably not going to get to a stage where it has formal diplomatic relations, which is
02:56pretty rare in general.
02:58But it can have a lot of substantive access and substantive relations without the formal
03:04trappings.
03:05That's a model that Taiwan has used very effectively with lots of partners around the world.
03:11The other thing that Taiwan has is that it doesn't foster relations of dependence.
03:17Now, the PRC has been focused on, you know, these more dependent relations because it gives
03:24it a lot of leverage, Taiwan wants access.
03:27It doesn't necessarily want or need that kind of dependence, right?
03:31So it would allow partners to have a lot more flexibility and autonomy.
03:37And so in that sense, that might provide some level of attraction.
03:43And so on that side of the side of the side of the side of the side of the side
03:45of the side of the
03:45side of the side of the side of the side of the side of the side of the side of
03:45the side of the side of the side of the side of the side,
03:45You
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