By Zweli Martin Dlamini

Taiwan Ambassador Jeremy Liang is one of the most corrupt diplomats in this country, apart from influencing the outcomes of the recent Tinkhundla elections by donating rice and other resources to Members of Parliament(MPs) for purposes of ‘buying votes, he now wants to manipulate Parliament to approve the controversial R5.2billion Strategic Oil Reserve project.

Well,I didn’t know that “the Taiwan Ambassador is corrupt to core until I discovered his alleged links with Kareem Ashraff when investigating the multibillion Oil Reserve Project, these are diplomats who arrived here and abused their diplomatic status and proximity to King Mswati to steal public resources.

But what is more concerning is the fact that, Government through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy signed an agreement with CECI Consulting Engineers, this company is not only linked to the alleged corrupt Ambassador but also to former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen through her brother Roger Tsai.

We have Consulting Engineers and giant Construction companies in this country owned by emaSwati and the question is; what does the eSwatini Government seeks to achieve by sidelining indigenous companies for such multibillion projects in favour of individuals who hide behind diplomacy while pushing a corrupt agenda.

Awarding the tender to any deserving local company would mean, the billions will circulate in the economy to enhance job creation and increase buying power but, that does not mean it’s completely wrong to engage a foreign company if the tendering is transparent and fair.

But a Government that is eager to empower it’s people could have considered a local company and then advise that company to partner with international entities, this tendency of laundering public funds to Taiwan through such multibillion projects is matter of serious concern.

But Taiwan is an Island or a Province of the People’s Republic of China and our country has absolutely no diplomatic future with Taiwan because China will eventually take over its Island.

The Chinese Province is supported by the United States(US) and the ongoing tension in the world politics suggests that, the US might be busy with other interests in the Middle East,Ukraine and other parts of the world, there might be less resources to protect Taiwan from possible China invasion.

Once the US becomes overstretched      and find itself having to manage various interests and support conflicts with arms in the Middle East,Ukraine and other parts of the world as Donald Trump threatens the Sovereignty of more countries, Taiwan might be left with no equally capable diplomatic ally and China will definitely invade.

Eswatini Parliament must know that, there’s no future with Taiwan and such projects are now used even by the Taiwan diplomats to steal public resources because they know, their days are numbered, world politics and foreign policies are changing under the Donald Trump administration.

The US President commented this week saying one day we might wake up to news suggesting that,Ukraine is part of Russia and these sentiments comes after almost three(3) years of fighting in Ukraine and the US is nearly speaking reality that, Russia is closer to victory.

So even if Taiwan could get support from the US, there’s no diplomatic future with that Island it literally does not have any military capabilities to fight China and if the US can prioritize other foreign interest, Taiwan will be history.

A diplomat from the Chinese Embassy once told me that, “the diplomatic relations between eSwatini and Taiwan could be equates to China choosing to establish diplomatic relations with the Hhohho Region that is part of eSwatini”.

I once interviewed the Ling Songtian, the then Chinese Ambassador to South Africa and it became clear to me that, China is very strategic with a long term plan to eventually seize back it’s Province and as mentioned, there’s no diplomatic future with Taiwan.