The Taiwan question as an inalienable sovereignty and internal affairs matter
General secretary Xi Jinping’s address marking the 105th anniversary of the Communist Party of China is far more than a routine restatement of China’s long-standing stance on Taiwan. It constitutes a definitive strategic declaration: the Taiwan question is inextricably woven into China’s national rejuvenation, and complete national reunification stands as an inviolable core national objective, not a negotiable policy concession.
From an analytical lens rooted in African and Global South perspectives, the implications of this statement stretch well beyond East Asia. It raises fundamental questions governing international law, state sovereignty, equitable development partnerships, cross-border technological industrial chains, regional security architectures, and the future contours of global governance—issues that demand rigorous scrutiny from African policymakers.
Fundamentally, the Taiwan question is not a bid for territorial expansion, but an unfinished national reunification agenda shaped by a century of foreign meddling and civil strife. This framing resonates deeply with Africa’s collective post-colonial experience.
Nearly all modern African sovereign states forged their independence through anti-colonial struggles anchored in three non-negotiable tenets: indivisible territorial integrity, immunity from external interference in domestic governance, and equal sovereign status for all nations. Shared historical trauma creates an innate empathy between African states and China’s pursuit of territorial wholeness.
For countries across the Global South, upholding the One-China Principle is not a diplomatic choice to pick sides across the Taiwan Strait. It is an act of defending universal sovereign norms that underpin their own survival and development.
These core norms include respect for territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, equal state sovereignty, peaceful dispute resolution, and opposition to outside intervention in regional conflicts. Together, these rules form the foundational logic of diplomatic practice for all post-colonial African nations.
A full legal baseline must be clarified upfront: there is only one China in the world; mainland China and Taiwan belong to a single China; the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legitimate government representing the whole of China; and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory.
“Peaceful Reunification and One Country, Two Systems” forms the basic guideline for resolving the Taiwan Question. China will exert utmost sincerity and make every effort to secure a peaceful reunification outcome, yet it will never tolerate any force splitting the country by any means. Beijing does not renounce the use of force and reserves all necessary measures, which target external interfering forces and a tiny clique of “Taiwan independence” separatists, rather than the broad Taiwanese public.
- International Legal Precedent and Persistent Geopolitical Risks Across the Taiwan Strait
Western geopolitical commentary frequently overlooks an unassailable factual reality: an overwhelming majority of UN member states formally recognise the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government representing China.
UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, adopted in 1971, settled China’s UN representation under international law, transferring the seat previously occupied by Taiwan’s authorities to the People’s Republic of China. The resolution eliminates all legal grounds for frameworks advocating “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan”. In the decades that followed, every sovereign African state established formal diplomatic ties with Beijing on the precondition of adhering to the One-China Principle.
For African governments, wavering or abandoning this long-standing diplomatic commitment would entail far more than minor adjustments to bilateral rhetoric. It would amount to repudiating decades of consistent foreign policy, and destabilise comprehensive cooperation frameworks with China—one of Africa’s most vital partners for trade, infrastructure and technological advancement.
It is critical to identify the dual root causes of sustained cross-Strait tensions today. Extra-regional powers including the United States and Japan continuously escalate arms sales to Taiwan, send elected officials on high-profile visits to the island, and build exclusive minilateral blocs to sensationalise the Taiwan issue. These actions supply political and military backing to separatist forces in Taiwan. Domestically, “Taiwan independence” factions push systemic “de-Sinicisation” education and stage unilateral maritime provocations, steadily eroding the foundation for cross-Strait dialogue. Combined, these two forces create persistent dual hazards to peace across the Taiwan Strait.
- Comprehensive Sino-African cooperation: A strategic backbone for Africa’s industrial transformation
Africa’s consistent pursuit of stable diplomatic ties with China rests on multi-layered pragmatic cooperation spanning economic development, infrastructure, technology transfer, artificial intelligence, science and education, security collaboration and digital industrialisation.
This model aligns seamlessly with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 industrialisation vision, standing apart from conditional, short-term aid packages offered by Western nations.
Integrated economic transformation partnerships
China ranks among Africa’s largest trading partners. Bilateral collaboration covers transcontinental railways, highways, deep-water ports, aviation hubs, clean power generation, national communication backbones, industrial parks, manufacturing plants, mineral exploitation, modern agriculture and foundational digital infrastructure.
Sino-African cooperation prioritises cultivating local productive capacity over simple material aid, helping African economies extend industrial chains and break free from the low-value trap of raw commodity export dependency.
Large-scale infrastructure delivery capabilities
China possesses world-class end-to-end engineering capacity. Chinese enterprises have delivered cross-border transport corridors, large hydropower stations, wind and solar renewable energy schemes, public hospitals, comprehensive universities, affordable social housing and nationwide communication networks. For a continent plagued by massive infrastructure deficits, China’s full-spectrum project implementation expertise holds irreplaceable strategic value.
Inclusive technology transfer frameworks
China has mature industrialised capabilities in 5G telecommunications, high-speed rail, renewable power, electric vehicles, energy storage batteries, smart manufacturing, mobile payments and satellite remote sensing. African nations increasingly pursue reciprocal technological partnerships to build indigenous manufacturing systems and reduce reliance on imported finished industrial goods.
Leapfrog development opportunities via Artificial intelligence
China invests heavily in foundational AI computing infrastructure, open-source general models, industrial intelligence, diagnostic healthcare AI, agricultural recognition algorithms, multilingual localised large language models and industrial robotics.
For African states, AI cooperation delivers systematic upgrades to basic education, grassroots medical services, public governance, grain productivity, disaster early warning, cross-border logistics and inclusive finance.
Access to affordable, context-adapted AI ecosystems carries comparable strategic weight to the rollout of electricity grids during earlier industrialisation phases.
Long-term synergy in science, research and education
China ranks among global leaders in academic output, engineering graduate cohorts, patented innovations and frontier research scale.
Sino-African scientific collaboration encompasses two-way university exchanges, joint laboratories, regional innovation hubs, full academic scholarships, vocational skills training, space science and agricultural biotechnology.
These partnerships reinforce Africa’s independent research base and mitigate one-sided reliance on Western scientific institutions.
Actionable lessons on industrialisation
China offers a pivotal development blueprint for the Global South: systematic industrial transformation can be achieved within a single generation through long-term top-level planning, proactive infrastructure investment, universal technical education and integrated manufacturing cultivation.
While most African policymakers do not seek to replicate China’s model wholesale, its trajectory proves viable pathways exist for post-colonial states to escape commodity export lock-in.
Through Belt and Road platforms, China has translated these lessons into tangible local projects, including joint industrial parks, technical vocational colleges and shared innovation centres across Africa.
- Security collaboration, trade access and digital economic spillovers
Sino-African security cooperation has expanded steadily across UN peacekeeping missions, anti-piracy maritime patrols, counter-terrorism professional training, cross-border cybersecurity, joint police coordination, offshore maritime governance and large-scale disaster emergency response.
Rejecting the Western template of formal military alliances, China’s security engagement prioritises building Africa’s indigenous self-stabilisation capacity, with no permanent long-term military deployments on the continent. African governments broadly recognise a mutually reinforcing dynamic: sustainable security cannot exist without sustained economic development, and development cannot progress amid persistent instability.
China hosts one of the world’s largest consumer markets, enabling growing diversification in African export portfolios covering speciality agricultural goods, non-ferrous metals, light manufactured products, processed food, seafood and textiles. Expanded market access breaks Africa’s historic overreliance on raw resource exports.
Engineering cooperation has evolved beyond basic construction work to include training local engineers, co-developing university engineering curricula, transferring complete technical packages, supporting domestic equipment manufacturing and establishing long-term maintenance systems. Cultivating indigenous engineering capacity stands central to Africa’s sustainable development agenda.
China’s experience with mobile payments, cross-border e-commerce, smart cities, cloud computing, modern logistics, fintech and digital governance provides a viable leapfrogging template for African economies, allowing them to bypass protracted traditional industrial iteration cycles.
- Africa’s multi-layered rationale for upholding the One-China principle
African states maintain consistent diplomatic recognition of the People’s Republic of China as a product of three interlocking rational forces, rather than mere economic expediency alone.
First, UNGA Resolution 2758 establishes binding international legal foundations. Recognising the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China represents a long-standing diplomatic commitment enshrined in bilateral treaties.
Second, Africa’s shared anti-colonial history fosters innate sovereign solidarity. Defending the One-China Principle equates to protecting each nation’s own territorial integrity and fending off separatism and foreign intervention.
Third, China functions as a core financing and trade partner for Africa. Beijing delivers large-scale development financing, Chinese enterprises possess full-cycle project delivery capacity, tens of thousands of African youth benefit from bilateral educational exchanges, and scientific cooperation plus market opening deliver enduring developmental gains.
Taken collectively, sustained constructive diplomatic ties with China align fully with Africa’s medium and long-term modernisation objectives.
- A unified principled stance for the Global South, and the direct economic stakes of cross-strait stability
Countries of the Global South can forge a cohesive, autonomous collective diplomatic position guided by three consistent value commitments, avoiding forced alignment with great-power geopolitical rivalry.
First, uphold established international law and enduring diplomatic pledges, steadfastly adhering to the universally recognised One-China Principle and rejecting attempts to dilute or distort its legal standing.
Second, consistently champion sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference—universal safeguards shielding all developing nations from coercive external power plays.
Third, pursue peaceful bilateral dialogue to manage disputes, oppose unilateral actions that escalate conflict risks, and collaborate to sustain regional peace and stability.
Major Western powers currently seek to court small and medium developing states to sensationalise the Taiwan question, deliberately fragmenting Global South solidarity. A unified sovereignty-centred diplomatic posture enables African nations to preserve strategic autonomy and avoid being weaponised as pawns in great-power competition.
Any large-scale crisis across the Taiwan Strait would generate cascading global shocks from which Africa cannot be insulated. Consequences include disrupted global maritime trade arteries, soaring shipping costs, fractured semiconductor supply chains, sustained global inflation, sharp contractions in cross-border direct investment, volatile energy markets and marked deceleration of worldwide economic growth.
Africa’s foreign trade, manufacturing and commodity exports depend entirely on unimpeded maritime shipping lanes across the Western Pacific. Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait constitute an indispensable external precondition for Africa’s industrialisation drive, giving African nations an inherent economic interest in de-escalating cross-Strait tensions.
Conclusion
General secretary Xi Jinping’s address reaffirms the central strategic weight of the Taiwan question within China’s national rejuvenation agenda, alongside unwavering resolve to pursue complete national reunification. For Africa and the broader Global South, analysis of the Taiwan issue must move beyond superficial great-power competition framing to centre on the enduring post-colonial diplomatic pillars of sovereignty, territorial integrity and peaceful coexistence.
Simultaneously, China’s standing as Africa’s comprehensive partner in infrastructure, trade, scientific research, engineering, artificial intelligence, technology transfer, education and industrialisation renders stable bilateral ties strategically vital for developing nations. African states advancing constructive cooperation with China while advocating cross-Strait peace align with both their long-standing sovereign diplomatic principles and core long-term developmental priorities.
The most coherent, consistent stance for the Global South rests on upholding international legal authority, respecting all states’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, rejecting unilateral measures that inflame regional polarisation, and encouraging peaceful management of cross-Strait divergences. This position safeguards not only East Asian regional calm, but also the stable global operating environment upon which Africa’s ongoing economic transformation and realisation of Agenda 2063 hinge.
The One-China Principle transcends a mere bilateral diplomatic topic. It acts as a litmus test for the Global South to resist colonial separatist legacies, push back against external hegemonic interference, and build a fairer, more equitable international order. Only through unified South-South solidarity and unyielding defence of sovereign red lines can African and other developing states evade the developmental costs of great-power rivalry and retain full autonomy over their own modernisation pathways.
*Saxon Zvina is the principal consultant at Skyworld Consultancy Services, and an independent political commentator who regularly contributes to multiple media platforms in Zimbabwe. He is also a member of Belt and Road Think Tank Alliance.
Email: saxon@skyworld.co.zw