Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves has described Prime Minister Godwin Friday’s official visit to Taiwan last week as “pure hypocrisy”.
He argued on Wednesday that the results touted by the New Democratic Party (NDP) government are “underwhelming” when measured against St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ (SVG) long-standing relationship with Taipei.
Gonsalves framed Friday’s first major extra-regional trip since taking office in November as an attempt to rewrite the NDP’s record on China–Taiwan policy while repackaging existing Taiwanese support as new gains.
During the campaign for the November vote, Gonsalves and his Unity Labour Party (ULP) had repeatedly stated that, if elected to office, the NDP would cut ties with Taiwan.
The NDP did not address the issue directly but hinted it would maintain diplomatic ties.
Gonsalves: From ‘One China policy’to Taiwan ‘partnership’
Gonsalves had criticised SVG-Taiwan ties before he was voted into office but maintained them for 25 years, during which his government borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from Taiwan. In 2023, he said Kingstown’s debt to Taipei “put a hook in the gill of anybody” in SVG who wants to break the diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
His central charge on Wednesday was that the prime minister and the NDP are now embracing a closer relationship with Taiwan after years of publicly committing to break ties with Taipei and switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing.
He reminded listeners that SVG has had diplomatic relations with Taiwan since 1981, under prime minister Milton Cato and Sir James Mitchell’s NDP, and the ULP government.
Gonsalves, however, said that consensus ended in 2016, when the NDP, under the leadership of Arnhim Eustace, formally adopted a “one China policy” favouring the People’s Republic of China.
Gonsalves said NDP leader Arnhim Eustace, and later Friday, made it clear that if elected, they would break relations with Taiwan and establish diplomatic relations with Beijing instead.
He pointed to Friday’s 2018 visit to mainland China as opposition leader, which he described as a trip “to cement relations with mainland China between NDP and mainland China”.
Gonsalves also quoted a 2019 Searchlight report in which, he said, Friday reaffirmed support for the one China policy even after attending a special sitting of Parliament addressed by Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen.
By contrast, Gonsalves noted, recent reports from Friday’s Taiwan trip show the prime minister now speaking of SVG–Taiwan ties as a “partnership” and endorsing the “further development” of relations.
Gonsalves characterised the shift as opportunistic.
“Are they only saying this to get past the funding of the hospital?” he asked, suggesting that the NDP wants the Taiwan-funded hospital at Arnos Vale completed and some debt relief granted before any renewed attempt to switch recognition.
Debt, grants and ‘re‑labelled’ money
Friday highlighted commitments secured in Taipei, including US$2 million for the NDP’s proposed National Development Bank and US$1.5 million for social programmes.
Gonsalves, however, questioned whether these are truly new resources or simply a repackaging of the annual US$4 million “civic infrastructure” grant that SVG has been receiving from Taiwan for years.
He warned that if the funds are merely redistributed within the existing US$4 million envelope, there could be consequences for programmes that previously drew heavily on that grant, including PRYME and PRYME Plus small business grants, the YES and SET youth employment/attachment programmes and aspects of social protection and community projects.
Gonsalves also responded to suggestions that Friday’s talks in Taipei opened the door to debt relief on SVG’s loans from Taiwanese institutions, including financing for the Argyle International Airport, the acute care hospital, and other infrastructure.
He argued that any such relief is structurally complex and politically sensitive. He said Taiwan’s loans often carry interest pegged to the SOFR benchmark plus margins.
He, however, said SVG had negotiated caps, for example, 3.5% maximum on the US$120 million hospital loan that his government had obtained from Taiwan.
If Taipei grants formal debt relief — through lower interest, longer amortisation, or write-offs — to St. Vincent and the Grenadines alone, he said, it could face pressure from all other diplomatic allies to do the same.
‘Ancient civilisation’ and diplomatic memory
Gonsalves said both Taipei and Beijing, as expressions of Chinese civilisation, have long memories and will not be easily “fooled” by short-term political manoeuvres in Kingstown.
“They thought they could have gone and fooled the Taiwanese,” he said of Friday’s delegation.
“The Taiwanese are representatives of an ancient civilisation… You can’t trick them. You can’t fool them. You can’t ‘mama guy’ them. You can’t blackmail them …
“Same thing with the mainland Chinese government … always remember these ancient civilisations. There are some fellers who just hurry come up … and they think they could hide their hypocritical past and mama guy people and trick people. No, no, no, no, no.”
Gonsalves pointed to his own record as evidence of principled consistency, saying that his government maintained diplomatic ties with Taiwan throughout his tenure but worked pragmatically with Beijing in multilateral forums such as the Caribbean Development Bank, World Bank, IMF, the UN, and the G77.
He said he advocated not a “one China policy” but a “one Chinese civilisation” framework in which multiple state forms can coexist.
Media, diplomacy and partisanship
The former prime minister also targeted media coverage of Friday’s visit, particularly in iWitness News, whose founder Kenton Chance currently serves as SVG’s ambassador to Taiwan.
He said headlines from iWitness News portrayed routine diplomatic courtesies — such as military honours and a state banquet — as unprecedented triumphs, while describing negotiations on national debt, business missions and TVET support in glowing terms.
Gonsalves questioned whether an ambassador could simultaneously perform diplomatic duties and act as a propagandist for the government. He challenged Chance to deny authorship of the pieces.
The opposition, however, did not mention the source of those headlines or that multiple media outlets carried similar ones.
At the same time, he stressed that every head of government visiting Taiwan receives similar ceremonial treatment.
Gonsalves insists that, for small states like SVG, credibility and consistency are crucial.
“We’re small, but you can’t tell me who I must have relations with,” he said of external pressure.
“And you can’t hold it against me if I have relations with [Taiwan], just like America can’t hold it against me because we have relations with Cuba.”