China urges citizens to leave Taiwan’s last friend in Africa

China is urging its citizens to evacuate Eswatini and warning others not to visit the tiny African kingdom over what it said were safety concerns and scamming risks in Taiwan’s last remaining diplomatic partner on the continent.

In a post on WeChat, the Department of Consular Affairs of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Eswatini’s security situation as “complex,” with crimes involving online fraud and illegal gambling “rampant” and public-security and safety risk “extremely high.”

“Chinese citizens and institutions currently in the country are urged to evacuate or relocate to relatively safer areas — such as South Africa — as soon as possible,” according to the WeChat post. “Those who insist on traveling to or remaining in the country will face extremely high security risks, and the timeliness of receiving assistance may be compromised.”

Officials in Beijing made no connection to Taiwan in issuing the advisory. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Wednesday that such notices were a common international practice, saying China “will take necessary measures” to safeguard the safety, rights and interests of its citizens overseas. The government issued its security advisory after what he called a “prudent assessment” of the situation in Eswatini, which has no official diplomatic ties with China.

Eswatini linked the move to a law enforcement operation targeting foreign nationals, mostly from China, for suspected cyber-related criminal activity. “Any suggestion that Eswatini presents an exceptional or generalized security risk is unsupported by the prevailing security situation and is therefore regrettable,” Thabile Mdluli, acting government spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced China’s action, describing it as a deliberate effort to undermine the island’s historical friendship with the African country. It called on the international community to recognize “the egregious nature of China’s authoritarian intimidation.”

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Located in the southeast corner of Africa, Eswatini is about the size of New Jersey with just 1.2 million people. Two Chinese nationals were fined for running an illegal online gambling operation there and face the possibility of imprisonment if those charges aren’t paid, Times of Eswatini has reported. A similar case was reported by Chinese publication Caixin in March.

While cyber crime has been on the rise, the kingdom is generally far safer than neighboring South Africa, which has one of the world’s worst murder rates. South Africa has the second-highest criminality score in Africa, according to rankings from the European Union-backed Enact. Eswatini, meanwhile, ranks 45th.

And although scams and cyber crime are widespread in Southeast Asia, Beijing rarely issues comparable travel advisories for nations in the region. Its most recent notice for any Southeast Asian country concerned the situation in the Philippines a year ago, when China’s Foreign Ministry said it was experiencing “a period of social unrest, with a surge in crimes targeting Chinese citizens.”

This isn’t the first time that Eswatini was accorded special treatment by Beijing. When it announced zero tariffs for African countries last year, it excluded Eswatini by limiting the policy to countries that have diplomatic ties with China.

Africa has become a key front in China’s efforts to isolate Taipei’s presence on the world stage.

In August, Taiwan urged citizens to postpone travel to Uganda after a series of passport disputes in which Taiwanese business travelers and their family members arriving at Entebbe airport had their documents seized by immigration officials, who demanded Chinese passports instead.

Earlier this year, Beijing persuaded three African countries to close their airspace to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s plane in a bid to derail his trip to Eswatini, which is one of 12 countries worldwide to recognize Taiwan. Lai eventually visited Eswatini in May, though at the time Taiwan’s government didn’t disclose details of how he traveled to the country.

China’s Foreign Ministry later released a statement titled, “Lai Ching-te’s travel to Eswatini on its king’s private jet.”

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Taiwan also suspended visa processing for Moroccan nationals in late July after Morocco imposed similar restrictions, while Taipei threatened retaliation after Kenya barred Taiwanese delegates from a global maritime conference and detained an academic from the island for 20 hours in June.

While Taiwanese business interests are widespread in the kingdom, mainland China’s are more limited. State-owned Power Construction Corp. of China in 2023 won a 2.6 billion-emalangeni ($165 million) contract to build a major dam in Eswatini.

Eswatini had 3 251 visitors from China in 2025, compared with 1 333 from Taiwan, according to official statistics.

The WeChat post was trending at No. 1 in China on Wednesday morning, generating more than 89 million reads, over 8,000 discussions, and 39,000 interactions as of noon.

Some commenters said they weren’t aware of the country. “Didn’t even know where Eswatini was until I was reminded,” wrote one.

Another user focused on the diplomatic dimension. “Take note: China and Eswatini have no diplomatic ties. Refusing to leave is dangerous, and it will be difficult to get help if you run into trouble.”

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