Taiwan&#x27;s delegates to the Our Ocean Conference scheduled to take place in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa next week will not be permitted to participate, according to a well-placed source. If this is the case, it would mark the third major setback for Taiwan in Africa over the past several weeks. Last month, the digital rights conference Rightscon was canceled in Lusaka, in part due to pressure from the Chinese embassy to block the participation of a small group of delegates from Taiwan. Around the same time, three African Indian Ocean island states refused to grant Taiwan President Lai Ching-te permission to overfly for a scheduled trip to Eswatini. Plus, Eric, Cobus &amp; Géraud discuss how a labor dispute at a massive Chinese-run cobalt mine in the DRC came to an end and the latest in the U.S.-China critical minerals competition in Africa. 📌 Topics Covered in This Episode Taiwan&#x27;s shrinking diplomatic space in Africa Kenya, China, and the Taiwan question Congo&#x27;s critical minerals and coltan smuggling Labor unrest at a major Chinese-owned mine Resource nationalism vs. mining investment The global race for critical mineral supply chains Join the Discussion: X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander | @christiangeraud | @stadenesque Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth Now on Bluesky! Follow CGSP at @chinagsproject.bsky.social Follow CGSP in French and Spanish: French: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine Spanish: www.chinalasamericas.com | @ChinaAmericas

Africa Is Closing The Door On Taiwan

The China in Africa Podcast

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The China in Africa Podcast

## Transcript

The China in Africa Podcast is supported in part by our subscribers and Patreon supporters. If you'd like to join a global community of readers for daily news and exclusive analysis about Chinese engagement in Asia, Africa, and throughout the developing world, go to ChinaGlobalSouth.com slash subscribe.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the China in Africa Podcast, a proud member of the Seneca Podcast Network. I'm Eric Olander, and as always, I'm joined by CGSP's Head of Research, Kobus van Staden, joining us today from the closet in Johannesburg, South Africa. A very good afternoon to you. Very overstuffed up. Yeah, but I love the background.

And then always from the beautiful island of Mauritius is our Africa editor, Jero Nima, with a much more elegant background than Kobus's. But good afternoon to you as well. Good afternoon. Okay, guys, we have a roundtable discussion today, which means we're going to cover a lot of ground. We're not going to focus on any one particular issue. We're going to talk about Taiwan in Africa. We're also going to talk about U.S.-China critical mineral supply chain questions.

And also on the critical minerals front, while we've got Jero with us, we're going to talk about some of the events that have been happening in the DRC related to supply chains. So this is one of those conversations where geopolitics, supply chains, economics, and the great power competition are all going to come together. Let's start with what's happening in Kenya. Yeah, there's going to be an ocean summit in Mombasa next week.

And I heard from a source today that Kenya will not allow delegates from Taiwan to attend. Now, this has not been confirmed. So it's entirely possible that by the time you guys either watch this or read this, that situation has changed. But a very reliable source has said that Taiwan delegates will not be granted visas to participate in the ocean summit in Mombasa.

Kobus, after what we saw in the islands, the Indian Ocean Islands, where President Lai Qingda's plane was barred from overflight, and also last month at the RightsCon conference in Zambia, where Chinese pressure over the presence of Taiwan delegates at RightsCon was one of the factors. Again, one of the factors. I'll make a point on this later. That led to the cancellation of the Rights Conference.

Are you surprised at all about this event, if it's in fact confirmed that Taiwan delegates will be barred from the ocean summit in Mombasa? No, it seems to be part of a trend where China is working with African allies to try and kind of push Taiwan out of multilateral forums. And considering the kind of the smallness of the Taiwanese side of the African economy and the huge size of Africa's engagement with China, you know, one can see why the pressure is effective.

But yeah, like it does seem to be like a kind of a kind of a gathering campaign, it seems to, you know, kind of par...

Africa Is Closing The Door On Taiwan

Transcript

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Africa Is Closing The Door On Taiwan

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.