Taiwan’s relations with its last remaining African ally are in the spotlight this week after President Lai Ching-te’s trip to Eswatini was canceled at the last minute, reportedly under pressure from China. 

Scheduled for April 22 to 27 to coincide with celebrations for the 40th anniversary of Swazi King Mswati III’s coronation, the visit was shelved when Mauritius, Seychelles, and Madagascar rescinded overflight permits, apparently at Beijing’s behest. With no indication that the visit would be rescheduled, at the time of writing, Lai could only bemoan China’s “coercion” and convey his “sincere wishes” to Mswati for his ruby jubilee. 

Africa’s only absolute monarch, Mswati, who was born in 1968 – the same year that Taiwan and Eswatini (then Swaziland) established diplomatic relations – recently celebrated his 58th birthday, another reason for the planned program of activities.    

Taiwanese media reported that the auspicious coincidence of these dates meant that Lai’s delegation had planned to commemorate the anniversary of official ties during the now-canceled visit, which was to include a tour of the Taiwan-funded Royal Science and Technology Park (RTSP), which has been under development since 2008.    

The unlikely alliance between the landlocked southern African nation, where roughly 75 percent of the population relies on subsistence agriculture, and the East Asian tech powerhouse, which has the world’s 20th largest economy per nominal GDP,  has long been premised on official development assistance (ODA). 

This can be traced to the postcolonial developments in early 1960s Africa, when Taiwan, as the Republic of China, was competing with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to secure diplomatic relations with newly independent nations on the continent. The goal was to bolster support at the United Nations. While Taipei at that stage held China’s seat at the U.N. – including permanent Security Council membership – motions to have the ROC replaced by the PRC had already been tabled. As such, each newly minted nation represented a vital vote. 

As part of this latter-day scramble for Africa between the two Chinas, the ROC launched Operation Vanguard on the continent, an initiative to win over African allies by sharing the “Taiwan model” of agrarian development. 

“The mission to Liberia in 1961 was one of the earliest examples of what we consider South-to-South development today,” explained James Lin, assistant professor of international studies at the University of Washington and author of “In the Global Vanguard,” which details the export of the Taiwan model. “Of course, the ROC elites didn’t see themselves as part of the Global South, but as a first-world nation, the mighty Republic of China, U.N. cofounder, and one of the great civilizations of the world.” 

Yet Taiwan’s technocrats and technicians couched communications with their African counterparts in the language of fraternity and shared cultural values. 

“They emphasized that they had also come from very poor rural roots and achieved vast success in a matter of a few decades, and portrayed themselves as a post-colonial nation state struggling to find its place in the international system,” said Lin. 

While the overriding objective of ROC President Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government was to garner support, there were moral dimensions to Operation Vanguard for many of those involved. The initiative was led by career diplomat Yang Hsi-kun, who later served as ROC vice minister of foreign affairs, and was dubbed “Mr Africa,” for his work in establishing a foothold on the continent. In his book, Lin cited internal correspondence from Yang to mission technicians in which he emphasized the “honor” they should feel in carrying out “a greater humanitarian mission.”  

The self-interest was undeniable, but Yang and his staff also hoped “to serve the betterment of peoples internationally, and to bring meaning to agricultural work,” Lin wrote. 

“Chiang Kai-shek’s goal was purely political,” Lin told The Diplomat, “but I think the technicians [on the ground] genuinely felt proud that they were able to help others.” 

The ROC agricultural mission to Swaziland was established in 1969 and began with rice promotion campaigns before expanding to vegetables and improving strains of local staples, such as corn. According to Peng Ruidan, one of the technicians involved, things got off to a slow start, with a 1971 training class on planting Taiwan-supplied cabbage drawing only 10 participants, recruited by local village chiefs. Yet, the success of this first batch attracted attention. Lin described the progress in his book:

After a short two-month growing season, according to Peng, the sales of cabbage to local markets netted such a profit for the ten locals that the next class enrolled forty participants. The Taiwanese ability to showcase the value of producing and consuming Vanguard-grown crops on demonstration plots was crucial to their mission in Africa.

Despite such achievements, Vanguard was – perhaps by design – unable to achieve the structural changes required to effect long-term development success for its African allies. Given political conditions on the home front, addressing the systemic corruption, authoritarian overreach, and insufficient capacity building that hampered such initiatives was never likely to be a priority for KMT foreign policy officials.   

Alas, this remains a familiar story. Besides the complications caused by the cancelation of Lai’s visit, a series of scandals and disturbing allegations is threatening to undermine Taiwan’s standing with Mswati’s regime. 

The most high-profile cases involve the World Vegetable Center, originally established in 1971 with funding from USAID and the Asian Development Bank as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center. From its headquarters in the southern city of Tainan, WorldVeg was envisioned by Taiwan’s planners as a vehicle for, in Lin’s words, “building closer international relationships through global agricultural science.”

In Eswatini, WorldVeg currently oversees the Taiwan-Africa Vegetable Initiative, with a stated aim of boosting vegetable yields and nutrition. With 12.4 percent of Eswatini’s population suffering from malnutrition, the TAVI project aligns with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating hunger from the country by 2030. 

Yet, in a supreme irony, Swazi employees of TAVI report routinely going hungry while carrying out their duties, with Taiwanese management forcing them to go without food for protracted periods. 

Incredibly, some of these incidents occurred during outreach projects to promote nutrition and distribute rice to the country’s neediest communities in conjunction with the International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF), Taiwan’s dedicated ODA agency. In one incident in October 2025, food was snatched from a TAVI employee by a Taiwanese project manager in front of Swazi legislators attending an event for one of these projects at a primary school in Eswatini’s capital of Mbabane.  

“This was a completely humiliating experience,” said Nontobeko Mbuyane, a communications specialist with WorldVeg between 2024 and 2025, who witnessed the incident. “And it happened in full view of members of parliament, including the minister for tourism.”

The incident, said Mbuyane, was part of a pattern of abusive behavior and labor rights violations that began under the management of Sophia Chan, who took over as TAVI project manager in January 2025. “Early on, there were several disturbing incidents that we picked up on – mistreatment here and there, abruptly changing policies and guidelines,” said Mbuyane. “But we thought, ‘She’s just getting used to her role.’”

However, things soon escalated, with Chan reportedly frequently losing her temper when she felt her authority was being challenged or when Swazi agronomists and staff tried to engage her over the alternative approaches to their work. “There were outbursts that had threatening connotations, and the implication that, ‘You are being paid with Taiwan’s money, so you will follow what Taiwan says.’”

This was particularly galling considering efforts Mbuyane said were made to help Chan adapt to local conditions when she came on board. “We not only committed to helping her reach her goals as a leader but tried to help her acclimatize, to understand the dynamics of our country’s cultural and political context,” said Mbuyane. 

However, it soon became apparent that Chan was uninterested in the advice of her subordinates, who were treated with disdain and disrespect. “She told us that she didn’t care about our culture,” says Mbuyane, “and that because the Taiwanese came all this way to assist us, we should just be grateful and do as we were told.” 

Her account of this attitude was echoed by other TAVI employees. “When we tried to offer guidance on local labor laws and deliverables for the projects, she would hear none of it but instead always make a reference to how things are done in Taiwan,” said Vincent Matsebula, an agronomist and TAVI project lead on indigenous vegetable promotion. “When things didn’t work out as she hoped, she would lament that she was new in the country and didn’t know.” 

This would not have been so bad were it not for frequent “racial comments” and discriminatory behavior, including a ban on the use of the employees’ native siSwati in the workplace. “We were told not to use our vernacular language, but of course she was able to use hers when her countrymen were around,” said Matsebula.  

The tipping point came when Swazi employees were told they couldn’t eat before Taiwanese management or TaiwanICDF personnel at work and events. As workdays frequently began at 5 a.m. and the Taiwanese would often not eat their main meal till mid-afternoon, local staff were left physically and mentally depleted.   

Requests for an explanation for this discriminatory demand were treated with derision. “‘It’s Taiwan’s money and rules,’ we were told. ‘If you don’t like it, find another job,’” Mbuyane recalled.  

The result was that Swazi employees took to sneaking snacks into toilets to stave off the frequent hunger pangs they felt. This was not only humiliating, said Mbuyane, but – in the case of one employee – potentially dangerous.  

Menzi Dlamini, who worked as a driver for TAVI from 2021 to 2025, had been injured in a car accident in 2024 that had left him suffering from peptic ulcers. He required a regular, balanced diet with his medication. The softly spoken 26- year-old recalled returning immediately to work after the accident, where no inquiries were made about his welfare. “Sophia never even asked if I was OK,” he said. 

Stressful working conditions, he believes, exacerbated his condition, and the enforced long periods without eating wreaked havoc with his health. However, nothing could have prepared him for the treatment he experienced at the aforementioned TAVI-TaiwanICDF event. 

Arriving early at the event at Mangwaneni Primary School in the Mbabane West area of the capital, Dlamini picked up a plate of vegetables for breakfast. The meals had been provided by TAVI as samples of their produce for the local community, and, as a TAVI employee, Dlamini naturally assumed they were available to all attendees. Barely had he taken a bite, however, when Chan snatched the plate from him, admonishing him in the process.  

“Can you imagine, in front of all those people?” said Dlamini. “Us Swazis are giving people, especially with food, so this was really rude.”

Chan’s antics did not go unnoticed by other participants at the events, including the member of parliament for Mbabane West, Jane Mkhonta-Simelane, who is also Eswatini’s minister of environmental affairs and tourism. Privately, an assistant to Mkhonta-Simelane conveyed the minister’s regrets to Dlamini and Mbuyane for the incident. However, the assistant indicated that Taiwan’s official sway was such that raising the issue publicly would be impossible. 

Perhaps the most embarrassing incident occurred when Chan shooed police officers out of a lunchroom at an event to donate equipment to a school in the central town of Malkerns. The officers had been assigned as a security detail to a minister who was presiding over the event, and Chan demanded they eat separately from Taiwanese staff and Swazi officials. 

“They were furious,” says Dlamini. “We had to do damage limitation, as they understandably didn’t want to attend future events.” 

Another source of constant friction was the demand that employees work weekends and overtime with no extra pay, something that was repeatedly raised with management, invariably drawing a hostile response. A recurring theme among employees was Chan’s insistence that they show gratitude and “love” for Taiwan, including the bizarre stipulation that they smile at all times in front of TaiwanICDF staff or risk being fired.   

After months of bullying and belittling, which Mbuyane and fellow employees say included “demeaning treatment, racist slurs, and threats,” Mbuyane made a formal complaint to Chan, which initially appeared to have had some effect. However, the TAVI manager soon reverted to type, said Mbuyane: “She promised there would be changes, but things actually got worse.” 

Mbuyane was summoned to a meeting with Chan and Sophia Jeng, the embassy’s second secretary and the official responsible for coordinating with TAVI and the TaiwanICDF, on May 15, 2025. Mbuyane recounted the pair “lashing out” at her in a “grossly humiliating and demotivating” manner. In addition to criticisms of her performance, she was “victimized and vilified” for her close working relationships with Swazi politicians, which was apparently viewed as “taking the shine off” Taiwan. Based on this, Mbuyane was also instructed by Jeng to stop attending events where local officials were present.   

Insult was added to injury when Mbuyane discovered that Chan had secretly been soliciting the services of another communications specialist. This information was relayed to Mbuyane by the individual in question, a former media colleague. In a letter to Chan dated September 23, 2025, highlighting these “unethical labor practices,” Mbuyane noted that, “Eswatini is relatively a small country and …  going behind my back to … industry colleagues without my knowledge is demeaning and undermining me.” It amounted, she felt, to “an act of constructive dismissal.”

By this point, Mbuyane, Matsebula, Dlamini, and another colleague had filed a grievance claim against TAVI. After failing to respond to this within 66 days, as legally mandated under Eswatini’s labor laws, WorldVeg informed the complainants that their contracts with the organization would not be renewed. The letters announcing this came from WorldVeg Director General Marco Wopereis.     

While no reason was given for the decision, after repeated requests for an explanation, the complainants were told that this was “downsizing due to unavailability of funding.”  Yet, the fact that the four employees involved in the grievance claim were the only ones to have their contracts terminated made it clear they were being targeted. Mbuyane also noted the approval of more than $1.5 million in funding for stage two of the TAVI project last month as evidence that budgetary issues are not a concern.  

Proceedings were then initiated with the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission of Eswatini for severance pay. At first, Chan scoffed at the threat of legal action, even questioning how the plaintiffs could afford lawyers, said Mbuyane.  

“The first outcome was that the court told them outright to pay us our terminal benefits and the notice period, which they were refusing, but finally did,” said Mbuyane. “Now, the court is addressing our unfair dismissal based on the victimization case, which is ongoing.”

When contacted for a response to the allegations, Sophia Chan and Wang Yun-ping both declined to comment, instead redirecting inquiries to Neil Palmer, strategic communications lead for WorldVeg. In an emailed reply, Palmer wrote: “WorldVeg is committed to fostering a respectful, inclusive and equitable workplace for all staff and partners. Concerns about workplace conduct are taken seriously and addressed through established procedures. As this involves confidential personnel matters, we are unable to comment further.”

Unfortunately, the TAVI case is far from the only allegation of misconduct against Taiwanese in Eswatini. Perhaps the most shocking claims come from former staff at the Eswatini branch of the Taiwan-headquartered Amitofo Care Center. 

The ACC, which has five campuses across four countries in southern Africa, with another two under development, operates a school under the name of Yuan Tong at each location. The students are orphans from the most deprived circumstances. Former teachers from the Yuan Tong High School on the outskirts of Nhlangano in southern Eswatini have described frequent instances of severe physical punishment and abuse at the hands of martial arts instructors. 

“Two kung fu coaches hurt the children they were training so badly that they had broken arms and were sent to Nhlangano health center,” said one former head teacher, who worked at the school between 2018 and 2019, and spoke on condition of anonymity. 

On another occasion, the teacher recounted, he arrived at school to find a Taiwanese instructor waiting to take him to a classroom to observe a “brutal” punishment being meted out to a student. “We tried to talk to the coach, but he seemed not to understand English, so I immediately went to management to tell them that I would call the police if he did not leave the child alone.” 

Another teacher who worked at the ACC’s Yuan Tong school in Nhlangano during the same period said Swazi pupils and teachers alike were routinely subjected to discrimination and abuse. “The racism and general ill treatment of children and local staff was at another level,” he said. 

His account of mealtimes on campus will be familiar to the TAVI employees. “Tables in the dining hall were separated by race,” he said. “The black staff were made to sit separately and had different meals from the Taiwanese staff.”

Both teachers referred to the transfer of instructors from the ACC’s campus in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, following an abuse scandal at the Yuan Tong school there. A 2025 investigation by the Economist exposed a catalogue of human rights abuses, including beatings resulting in broken bones and the use of Malawian students – orphans, like their Swazi counterparts – as “human capital” in the illicit ivory trade.

While management at the Lilongwe school is Taiwanese, the “kung fu instructors” in these cases were reportedly Chinese nationals. The former head teacher at the Nhlangano school said he was told by employees of U.S.-based aid agencies that, following the Malawi scandal, the offenders were moved on to Eswatini. 

Both employees emphasized that the ACC director in Eswatini, Amber Ko, was “a decent person” who was trying her best in challenging circumstances. However, they say she had little power to rein in the excesses of her staff. 

In response to an e-mailed request for comment, Ko wrote that the school “maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any form of violence or corporal punishment” and that “under no circumstances does ACC shield or tolerate misconduct.” Legal proceedings would be taken against any staff who violated the regulations, she added, concluding: “We appreciate your ongoing support and vigilance. Your feedback is a vital force that drives us to continuously improve and uphold the highest standards of care.”

As in the TAVI case, Taiwan’s leverage with local authorities, the teachers said, is such that attempts to report abuses are ignored or, worse, met with threats against the whistleblowers. 

The two teachers cited genuine fears for their own safety and that of their families for their decision to remain anonymous. “Critics here can just disappear without a trace, and nobody cares,” said the second teacher. 

Little wonder, then, that the most vociferous critics of both Taiwan’s practices in Eswatini and Mswati’s regime are found outside the country, chiefly in neighboring South Africa. The best known of these is undoubtedly Zweli Martin Dlamini, the editor of the online, Johannesburg-based outlet Swaziland News. 

The website has published a spate of articles containing lurid allegations against Taiwanese ambassador Jeremy Liang and Sophia Jeng, who was involved in the TAVI dispute. These include claims ranging from conflicts of interest, profiteering, and outright corruption to a physical assault on a Chinese businessman at a golf club in Mbabane. Liang is also frequently depicted as being in nefarious cahoots with Roger Tsai, a director at CECI, a quasi-state-affiliated engineering consultancy that carries out large-scale public infrastructure projects in Taiwan’s partner countries. The RTSP is among CECI’s flagship projects in Eswatini, though questions have been raised over transparency and the fact that it remains unfinished after 18 years.  

Established in 1969 as China Engineering Consultants, Inc., the organization has been criticized for the perceived opacity of its operations. In Eswatini, where the line between “public infrastructure” and the king’s personal property is blurred, allegations of kickbacks and bribery in the awarding of public works tenders are commonplace. 

Yet, many of the reports from Swaziland News can barely pass for credible journalism. Aside from the woeful standards of writing, the articles are littered with inaccuracies and demonstrable falsehoods, such as the claim that Roger Tsai is the brother of Taiwan’s former President Tsai Ing-wen. In a statement published on the CECI website on October 31, 2025, the company addressed this and “misinformation” regarding alleged impropriety. 

A spokesperson for the Taiwan Embassy in Eswatini responded to an emailed inquiry about the TAVI case and the corruption allegations by stating that the embassy was “not aware of the so-called human rights issues reported by the Swaziland News” and, therefore, “we cannot make a comment on it.” A similar reply came from the Department of West Asian and African Affairs under Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). 

“We would like to refer you to the Embassy’s [sic] previous communication, as we have no additional information to add at this time,” wrote Audrey Wang, section chief for the department. 

This response, which pointedly avoided addressing the accusations against Liang, is hard to credence, given the volume and frequency of articles from the outlet and their prominence in the Swazi digital landscape.  

Other MOFA statements provide direct evidence that Taiwan’s authorities have Swaziland News and its editor firmly in their sights.

Days before Lai was due to visit, MOFA issued a statement in response to “false articles” about Liang, after repeated claims by Swaziland News that he faced recall and was prevailing on Mswati to intercede with Lai.

There is strong circumstantial evidence that Swaziland News receives funding from Chinese sources. Having initially agreed to discuss his outlet’s allegations against Liang, Tsai, and others, Zweli Martin Dlamini stopped responding to messages. Shortly afterwards, Swaziland News published a rambling diatribe, accusing Taiwan’s media of a smear campaign against the editor, with allusions to foreign journalists being unwittingly coopted into these efforts. The article, like several others relating to Taiwan, is no longer accessible on the outlet’s website.  

Yet, Dlamini’s claims here are not without foundation. In a previous article, he had cited a memorandum of understanding between Taipei and Mbababe as designed to undermine free speech in Eswatini. During an April 2025 visit to the Swazi capital, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung joined his counterpart Pholile Shakantu in signing the MoU, with a stated aim of combating disinformation in the country. 

Dlamini’s contention that the agreement, which allegedly provided over $610,000 in funding, was designed to stifle dissent and was specifically aimed at Swaziland News was corroborated by Samuel Straw, head of research at Taiwan Digital Diplomacy Association, which ran a four-day cybersecurity workshop in Eswatini in December 2025, with support from MOFA. 

“Everyone was mentioning him,” said Straw, referring to Dlamini. “They were very direct, saying that he was posting fake news, funded by China, and causing issues for them.”

While Straw said the participants framed their questions carefully, the import was clear: “Essentially, they wanted the tools and knowledge to take down Facebook posts criticizing the government.”

Best case practices from the European Union in tackling Russian propaganda were shared, said Straw. “But in Eswatini’s case, it is against anti-government protesters. And who decides what is misinformation? The authorities, right?” 

For Taiwan, which proudly highlights its democratic resilience in combating malign influence operations, such revelations should cause dismay and soul-searching. Rather than helping to foster the democratic norms and freedom of speech it holds so dear, Taipei is bolstering the capacity of authoritarian regimes to crack down on such rights. 

In its ODA projects, Taiwan should be leading by example in espousing progressive values and the spirit of fraternity that motivated the early “straw hat diplomats” under Operation Vanguard. Instead, Taiwanese development professionals stand accused of treating their partners with contempt and demanding gratitude.  

“I have worked in humanitarian and development organizations my entire professional life and have seen the positive impact they bring to people’s lives,” said Mbuyane. “However, I have a firm belief that Taiwan’s projects, while bringing aid and support, should not dehumanize and strip our citizens of their dignity.” 

Describing the scenes she witnessed as “modern-day slavery disguised as a picture of support,” Mbuyane had hoped that Lai’s visit might signal a change in approach. She noted that mainstream media in Eswatini did not report the debacle of the enforced cancellation of his trip. “State newspapers are captured, and will not report this,” she said.    

Still, she hopes Lai’s goodwill message might translate into meaningful change for the benefit of both countries.    

“May this be a turning point,” she said, “with love and humanity in action, not only in words.”