China’s Controversial Territorial Issues Gain Prominence in Beijing Diplomatic Engagement With African Stakeholders

August 31, 2020

China’s territorial issues related to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, and the South China Sea are becoming increasingly prominent topics of discussion when Chinese ambassadors engage with African governments and media.

While these so-called “core interests” have always been a part of the Chinese diplomatic dialogue in Africa, they seem to be generating more visibility lately as Beijing faces criticism for the internment of millions of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, the imposition of a new national security law in Hong Kong, and more recently, U.S. challenges to China’s dominance in the contested South China Sea. The One China Policy related to Taiwan is also an increasingly popular theme.

Every week now, we’re seeing more African media coverage, official readouts from Chinese-African diplomatic exchanges, and posts on Chinese diplomatic Twitter accounts in Africa that feature comments about Chinese territorial issues.

Most likely, the Chinese are attempting to solidify already strong support among African countries on these sensitive issues at various international fora like the United Nations when confronted by critics in the U.S. and Europe.

China’s Territorial Issues Raised in Egypt and Liberia

EGYPT: Chinese Ambassador, Liao Liqiang, pushed back against well-documented accusations that China is detaining millions of Uighurs in concentration camps in an interview with the Egyptian news service Mobtada. He also answered multiple questions about China’s official stance on events in Hong Kong and the South China Sea. (MOBTADA)

COMMENTARY: Based on the wording of the questions it’s highly probable they were coordinated in advance with the embassy and the Chinese talking points all align with Cairo’s views on the issues. What’s most interesting is that Ambassador Liao and other Chinese officials have not faced any blowback in the Arab world for their position on Xinjiang and use events with Egyptian officials and media outlets as a primary Arabic-language gateway to promote their position on this issue.

LIBERIA: China’s newly-arrived ambassador to Monrovia, Ren Yisheng, made the rounds last week to meet with various legislative leaders, ministers, and health officials. In his meeting with the Speaker of the House Representatives, Dr. Bhofal Chambers, Ambassador Ren thanked him for the legislature’s support on the One-China Policy and re-emphasized that “Liberia respects China’s national sovereignty and firmly adheres to the one-China principle” (强调利方尊重中方国家主权，坚定奉行一个中国原则),” according to a Chinese-language article posted on the embassy’s WeChat account. The new ambassador also introduced his new hosts to China’s security policy in Hong Kong. (CHINESE EMBASSY IN LIBERIA WECHAT)

COMMENTARY: What’s interesting about the embassy’s summary of Ambassador Ren’s various meetings in Monrovia is that they emphasized the One China Policy and Hong Kong issues above all others, including COVID-19 assistance. This highlights just how important these core interests are to Chinese officials regardless of where they are.

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Rajpriya Gautam