Maravi

Sata explains his visit to Taiwan

Sata explains his visit to Taiwan
By George Chellah
Thursday February 15, 2007 [02:00]

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata yesterday said his visit to Taiwan was to enable him to improve his knowledge of that country. And Sata said Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Zambia was out of desperation and frustration because many countries in the world have sensed the ghastly repercussions of unchecked Chinese investment in their economies.

In an interview yesterday, Sata described his visit to Taiwan as an exploration in his search for more knowledge. "When I was in Taiwan, I was even telling the people I met that the biggest poverty which has hit intellectuals including the media, is ignorance. We seem to be used to this suppression of knowledge by China through their 'agent'- Levy's government," Sata said. "But I refused to have my knowledge suppressed or stifled by China so I explored... there were those explorers you know like David Livingstone and Stanley. So I also went to Taiwan because I wanted knowledge. I didn't want my knowledge to be suppressed."

Sata said there was need for Zambia to be aware of the hypocrisy that exists over the 'One China policy'. "We have been told here that there is 'One China policy' which was endorsed by the United Nations but it's like in the UN developing countries are just spectators. How do you say there is 'One China policy' when the same countries that are in the Security Council have embraced Taiwan? So these countries support the 'One China policy' in the morning and embrace Taiwan at night," Sata said. "For example, the US alone has 14 Taiwanese offices, Britain has two, France has one, Germany has four, Italy has two and Taiwan has offices in all European countries. South Africa has three Taiwanese offices, that's in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg, Nigeria has one in Lagos, Morocco has one and Egypt also has one office. Taiwan also has missions in Malawi, Swaziland, Gambia, Burkina-Faso and Sao Tome."

He said if Zambia had to develop, it should not be misled by western countries' hypocrisy on Taiwan. "We all need development. But it's like Zambia is the only bearer of the 'One China policy'. When these western countries are in New York, it's 'One China policy' and when they are back home the question is 'what will they get from Taiwan?'" he asked. Sata said Taiwan was an emerging economy and developing countries need to do business with it. "Taiwan has a population of 23 million people with a per capita income of about US $ 14,000. They have 6,000 hospitals and they have 300,000 excess nurses. Today Taiwan is producing Japanese vehicles and they have full employment, they are even importing 360,000 labour with the majority of them being from main land China. There are also many Taiwanese companies in main land China. So the quality goods you are seeing here are from Taiwan and the inferior ones from main land China," Sata said.

"What we agreed here is that we have to break this ignorance by sending four independent people to see for themselves on an uncontrolled expedition so that I can be proved wrong over what I have said or been saying about Taiwan and also how there economy is doing. A lot of countries have business dealings with Taiwan. "Taiwan is the fifth-largest exporting country in the world and you can't avoid it. But here, you recruit Chinese doctors and they end up having Chinese restaurants in town. They are just flooding the country with human beings instead of investment and you are even jumping as a government." Sata said China wanted to blindfold and intimidate Zambians so that they don't deal with Taiwan.

"China is desperate, even Hu came here because they are desperate and frustrated. Many countries in the world are now aware of the consequences of unchecked Chinese investment in their economies. So they are trying to create friends, it's a new colonialism and imperialism. No wonder South African President Thabo Mbeki warned and spoke against them," Sata said. "We have to be very careful because if we leave them unchecked, we will regret. China is sucking from us; we are becoming poorer because they are getting our wealth. Even seriously emerging economies like South Africa and India are checking the Chinese thoroughly because they know the ghastly repercussions of this Chinese invasion."

Labels: CHINA, FDI, SATA

posted by MrK @ 10:43 AM