The Hypocrisy of the US in Taiwan vs in Anglophone Cameroon is Glaring.  Here’s why it Matters

By Hans Ngala

We all still remember the news of the death of an American missionary Charles Wesco, just outside of Bamenda in October 2018. Rumors had been spreading prior to Wesco getting caught in the middle of a gun battle between separatists and soldiers – that if one American citizen was touched in this civil war, America would be left with no choice but to intervene militarily.

The Wescos had just arrived as Baptist missionaries in Cameroon not up to a week when Mr. Wesco was shot and killed around Bambui, on the outskirts of Bamenda. The US government treaded very cautiously and issued carefully-worded statements urging “dialogue” and “peace” and equating blame on both parties to the war, but not expressing any readiness to intervene militarily.

In February 2019 – four months after Wesco’s death – the US would announce that it was cutting some military assistance to Cameroon because of “credible allegations” of human rights abuses by Cameroonian soldiers. The aid that was cut, included over “17 million Dollars in security aid, including funds for radars, four defender-class patrol boats, nine armored vehicles, training programs for C-130 airplanes and helicopters and the withdrawal of an offer for Cameroon to be a candidate for the State Partnership Program” according to CNN.

The US has projected itself as a defender of human rights and democracy – including the right to self-rule or determination by weaker nations who may be geographically close to stronger nations such as the case with Taiwan and China or Ukraine and Russia. The US has been firmly in support of Ukraine’s independence even as Putin’s forces claim to be carrying out a “special operation” that has polarized the world like fewer conflicts have done in decades.

This US model is quite obvious in Taiwan where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went two days ago, to the chagrin of Chinese authorities who announced military drills close to the border as Pelosi visited – a clear warning to the US to steer clear of Taiwan.

Why is the US so Interested in Taiwan?

According to the US State Department, “Taiwan is a highly advanced economy producing an estimated $786 billion in goods and services in 2021. The United States and Taiwan have deep and growing commercial, financial, and trade ties, which advance U.S. interests and help create economic opportunities in the United States”. The above statement makes it very clear that while the US parades itself as a defender of human rights and democracy in Taiwan, it is really just interested in promoting its own interests which include doing everything to subdue China and curtail China’s growing global economic and political nfluence.

In an article in The New Yorker titled “The Provocative Politics of Nancy Pelosi’s Trip to Taiwan”, Isaac Chotiner interviews Shelley Rigger, a political science professor who explains that:

 “The core thing that I take away from Pelosi’s visit is that it was ultimately about U.S. domestic politics and People’s Republic of China domestic politics, and Taiwan was the pawn caught in the middle”.

This is the simple truth. The US or China would never be interested in a country if they are not benefitting from it economically or if they cannot use that country to display their prowess. This brings to mind the African proverb that “When the elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers”.

The US has meted mediocre sanctions on Cameroon’s government and not done as much as it has in Taiwan. The US has sent its second highest ranking person after the president to a country that is not experiencing conflict on the scale that Cameroon is experiencing with the ongoing separatist war. Taiwan is not even experiencing any conflict whatsoever, yet Pelosi flew hundreds of kilometers to go there and annoy the Chinese while claiming to be showing “support” for Taiwan.

 The US can also be partly blamed as its leadership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) largely caused the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war by continually expanding eastwards towards Russia – something naturally bound to annoy the Kremlin.

The unrest in Cameroon would have been long solved if US authorities had shown the same resolve they have shown in Taiwan and Ukraine – if they had adopted the same stance on the war in Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

While some Cameroonians want to break away from the rest of Cameroon, others are willing to maintain the status quo and yet others have asked for a referendum to put all speculations to rest as this will truly determine the future of the two embattled regions that once formed the Southern Cameroons.

No one could be trusted more to mediate such a process than the US but when it continually displays such blatant hypocrisy, it makes it confusing for the masses who are left wondering if the US really is a beacon of democracy at all.

Some would argue that each country should solve its own problems but in this era of world politics, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that no one country can make it on its own without lobbying others. That is why Russia has been on the offensive, seeking out partners to side with her as its invasion of Ukraine enters the seventh month this August.

Western countries who have been heaping sanctions on Russia have also buckled as a result of the war and have massively been courting the same countries that Russia has been courting.

The US cannot and should not project itself as a defender of human rights but then apply this principle selectively. Anglophone regions of Cameroon are heavily militarized and the US government ought to do more than just issue weak statements but should begin to pressure both President Biya’s government and separatist leaders (most of whom are based in the US), to go into dialogue because it is ordinary Cameroonians who are paying the ultimate price. The US ought to show true leadership and go beyond rhetoric and start taking action lest they wake up too late when there is no one left in Cameroon to be saved in the first place!