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Taiwan has accused Kenya of detaining and deporting members of its delegation to an international oceans conference, blaming Chinese pressure.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, China offers countries like Kenya billions of dollars in loans and construction through its Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure program that has financed some of Kenya’s biggest projects, including the Standard Gauge Railway linking Mombasa to Nairobi, along with ports, highways, power plants and other shit. In exchange, Beijing gains both economic and diplomatic leverage, since the financing deepens a country’s reliance on China (Kenya is now one of its largest debtors, owing it billions) and expands China’s strategic footprint across Africa, while critics argue the resulting debt load hands Beijing a lever to pull when it wants political alignment. A baseline condition of any relationship with China is acceptance of its “one-China” policy, under which partners recognize Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China and decline to treat Taiwan as a sovereign state. That dynamic is a big part of why nations heavily dependent on Chinese money, particularly across the Global South, tend to side with Beijing on sensitive issues, including limiting Taiwan’s access to international events.
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What’s going on now: According to Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry, two delegates headed to the Our Ocean Conference in the port city of Mombasa had their visas revoked at the last minute, were denied entry and held by Kenyan immigration authorities for more than 20 hours, during which their passports and mobile phones were confiscated, before being deported. The rest of the delegation then withdrew from the event, and the ministry condemned what it called the “barbaric” acts while alleging Kenya had acted under political pressure from Beijing.

Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said China’s campaign to shut Taiwan out of international gatherings had become “the new normal,” accusing Kenya of a unilateral distortion of the one-China policy and arguing that Beijing increasingly leans on developing economies within its economic orbit. Taiwan noted it had attended the conference since 2015 without incident and vowed it would neither fear nor succumb to such actions.

Kenya defended the move, with Foreign Ministry official Korir Sing’oei saying the country “recognizes only one China” and that those holding Taiwanese passports would not normally be admitted or included in a state meeting. China’s Foreign Ministry, for its part, praised Kenya for “resolutely upholding the One China principle.”