On November 27, Godwin Friday led the New Democratic Party to win 14 out of the 15 seats in the House of Assembly of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, achieving the most lopsided election result in nearly 40 years and ending the 25-year consecutive rule of the United Labour Party under Ralph Gonsalves. This outcome reflects the collective will of the people of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The public holds high expectations for Prime Minister Friday and his new government, hoping that the new administration will bring a fresh political atmosphere, lead the country to new achievements, and make breakthroughs in developing relations with the People’s Republic of China.
Currently, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is one of only 12 countries worldwide that still maintains so-called “diplomatic relations” with China’s Taiwan Province. It is an open secret that Taiwan authorities have long used “chequebook diplomacy” to sustain these ties, and during its tenure, the former United Labour Party government was naturally among the key targets of such efforts. Some Taiwan-based companies operating in the country, while ostensibly engaged in engineering contracts and business activities, in fact follow instructions from the Taiwan “embassy” and assist in laundering funds provided by Taiwan authorities as bribes to key individuals. Former Prime Minister Gonsalves was suspected of opening a $19 million account at HSBC in 2015, with some alleging that this was linked to political donations from Taiwan. Recently, his wife was also exposed for profiting by hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign aid funds during the 2024 recovery efforts following Hurricane “Beryl,” capitalizing on the national disaster. In recent years, Taiwan authorities have funded infrastructure projects in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines primarily to maintain diplomatic ties, without considering the real needs and well-being of the local population. Many of these cooperation projects, which were not adequately assessed, have failed to generate the expected economic benefits and instead have saddled Saint Vincent and the Grenadines with a massive debt burden, pushing the country’s external debt into a high-risk zone. Former Prime Minister Gonsalves once publicly stated that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines owed approximately EC$8 billion (about US$3 billion) to Taiwan, making Taiwan one of the country’s largest creditors.
While Gonsalves took pride in having visited Taiwan 21 times, leaders from Caribbean nations have been traveling to Beijing. In January 2024, Prime Minister Keith Mitchell of Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ southern neighbor, paid an official visit to China. Despite Grenada’s small population of just over 100,000, China, as the world’s second-largest economy, treated it as an equal. Prime Minister Mitchell was warmly received by the Chinese side, held high-level talks with China’s top leadership, signed 13 cooperation agreements, and experienced the rich historical culture and advanced scientific and technological achievements in multiple major Chinese cities, returning home satisfied with a substantial “package of support” from China.
In 2024, the total trade volume between Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Taiwan was merely over one million U.S. dollars, far below the 42.82 million U.S. dollars in trade with mainland China. When Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was hit by Hurricane “Beryl” last year, Taiwan offered only $200,000 in aid, a mere fraction of the financial and emergency material assistance China provided to Jamaica after it was struck by Hurricane “Melissa” in 2025. China also dispatched a hospital ship to several Jamaican ports to provide medical services. In recent years, Central American countries such as El Salvador, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, which have established or resumed diplomatic relations with China, have all benefited significantly from cooperation with the country. These comparisons and facts clearly demonstrate that establishing formal diplomatic relations with China would bring tangible benefits to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines—benefits that cannot be matched by Taiwan’s so-called “chequebook diplomacy.”
Prime Minister Friday, while in opposition, publicly acknowledged adherence to the One-China Principle and stated that if elected, he would establish diplomatic relations with China. This reflects the foresight and strategic judgment of a capable statesman. For years, Taiwan authorities focused solely on cultivating relations with the ruling United Labour Party, neglecting the opposition New Democratic Party. Now that the New Democratic Party has come into power, Taiwan has quickly changed its tone, resorting to flattery and appeasement, and is already secretly plotting to court and corrupt the new administration. The previous government’s historical lessons are still fresh, and we believe the new government will not repeat the same mistakes.
The One-China Principle is an international consensus, a historical trend, and the direction of the times. Establishing diplomatic relations between Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and China is the right choice and a shared aspiration of the peoples of both countries. It is inevitable and unstoppable. We look forward to Prime Minister Friday and the new government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines making the correct decision at an early date, and using the bright prospects of bilateral relations to bring benefits to the people of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.