Outgoing Prime Minister of Haiti Claude Joseph confirmed the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in the early hours of Wednesday by suspected foreign mercenaries in an “odious, inhuman, and barbaric act.”
In addition to pressure from opposition leaders to step down, Moïse faced mounting demands from Haitian business leaders to consider establishing relations with China. Haiti is one of the few remaining nations in the world to recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty and maintain close ties to that country.
Under the Communist Party’s “One China” policy, Beijing does not maintain any diplomatic relations with countries that recognize Taiwan. In an interview with Taiwan News published Wednesday, Haiti’s ambassador to Taiwan asserted that Moïse valued the bilateral relationship and had no intention of accepting lucrative Chinese loan offers to abandon Haiti’s relationship with Taiwan, reported Breitbart.
Moïse spent much of 2021 warning that “oligarchs” were attempting a “coup” to remove him from office. In February, in the aftermath of the opposition declaring Mécène president, Moïse granted an interview to the Spanish-language newspaper El País in which he stated that he felt his government threatened by “economic groups” who, in the past, had enjoyed significant influence in prior governments. He also insisted that he would not run for reelection in 2022 and that he was not a “dictator.”
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