ST. GEORGE’S, GRENADA: PRIME MINISTER Dr Keith Mitchell is in London this weekend on his way to a controversial visit to Beijing, China. The visit is so potentially shocking and far-reaching, that his office waited until only moments before he flew out as head of his delegation to announce by a terse press statement that gave little details as to his itinerary. The statement did not say actually when Prime Minister Mitchell will arrive in Beijing or how long he will stay, but said Prime Minister Mitchell is in search of rebuilding aid for his devastated country, struck in September by Hurricane Ivan. But the buzz around Grenada is that the island is about to break its long-standing 20-year old relations with rival Taiwan, which has been Grenada’s biggest aid donor for over a decade. Only this week Taiwan donated more money to a scholarship fund. Officials at the Taiwanese embassy in Grenada became aware of the visit when the media release was issued, and no government official has contacted them since. They are refusing to comment publicly on the development but were engaged in late meetings on Friday. Officials at China’s embassy in the Trinidad capital Port of Spain were not even aware that their country was hosting the Grenada leader. The arrangement was apparently made at the highest levels directly between St George’s and Beijing. Foreign Minister Elvin Nimrod, who is accompanying the Prime Minister, was the key contact man. Grenada government officials refused to comment on the visit beyond what was stated in the press release. “What you see is what it is. The Prime Minister is visiting Beijing,” one official told CARIBUPDATE. Asked if the island is about to break with Taiwan, the answer was: “You will have to ask the Prime Minister about that.” By that time however he was already in the air. Prime Minister Mitchell had hinted about a month after Hurricane Ivan struck that he was eyeing a craved-for bigger payday from Communist China when he was strangely openly critical of Taiwan’s aid assistance. He said the country could have done more than its immediate one million dollar pledge, and strongly hinted at the mainland option. The Taiwanese responded by pumping more aid, and promising to completely rebuild the island’s cricket stadium for the 2007 World Cup. For the Taiwanese, Mitchell’s latest move is the “unkindest cut.” For years they had assumed that Grenada is its strongest ally among a fading list of faithfuls in the eastern Caribbean. The island championed the cause of Taiwan every year at the United Nations. Weary that it might be the opposition that may turn mainland China, the Taiwanese not only help the government of Grenada, but pumped more than a million dollars to the ruling New National Party’s re-election campaign last year, according to top party officials. At the same time it turned down an opposition appeal for aid, stating that official policy does not allow it to get involved in any country’s internal politics. Now the Taiwanese are banking on the opposition to complain about the Prime Minister’s behavior and force it to back off with public pressure. But diplomatic sources say that Mitchell’s visit signals the beginning of the end of relations with Taiwan. Mitchell is hoping that the mainland Chinese will take over the rebuilding of the Grenada stadium, and offer it much more in reconstruction aid than the millions the Taiwanese have promised. Opposition officials are this week also discussing the major diplomatic development. “We have heard the reports, and we are discussing this development,” senator Arly Gill said Saturday. “But my own initial response is that this is classic Keith Mitchell behavior – an unreliable ally, an ungrateful friend who is not guided by any sound principle,” he said. In recent years, Taiwan has lost St Lucia and Dominica to the mainlanders’ big bucks. If Grenada goes, it will leave St Vincent and St Kitts-Nevis as the only countries remaining in the eastern Caribbean with which it has relations. Some predict that St Vincent under Ralph Gonsalves is also a candidate for diplomatic defection. Reprinted from Caribupdate.com