Gonsalves lied about the size of Taiwan’s hook
In a 2010 memoir, “A Mountain of Crumbs”, Elena Gorokhova wrote, “The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying anyway, and we keep pretending to believe them.” And so it is with a growing section of the Vincentians regarding statements made by government officials.
At the 114th Taiwan National Day celebration in St. Vincent, Prime Minister Gonsalves declared that the size of Taiwan’s hook in our nation’s “gill” was a whopping EC$800 million. Had Gonsalves made that statement in a court of law, he could have been impeached for lying under oath. He lied about the size of our debt to Taiwan, knowing at the time that his statements were false.
Previously, Gonsalves admitted that he lies sometimes, but not about public affairs. On Oct. 9, 2025, when he told his audience that SVG owed EC$800 million to Taiwan, he and the Taiwan ambassador knew he was lying.
We will use Gonsalves’ own words to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he knew he was lying. In April 2023, Gonsalves stated that St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ debt to Taiwan was EC$577.9 million. At this year’s Taiwan celebration, he said the debt was EC$800 million. But his “maths ain’t mathsing”
In August 2024, the government, with bipartisan support, borrowed a further US$125 million or EC$334 million, which meant that by official count, the debt to Taiwan $577 plus $334, at a minimum, EC$911 million. We have not included interest payments on these loans.
While Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves gleefully stated that, although the US$125 million hospital loan has a 10-year grace period, which meant we had 40 years to repay the loan, opposition parliamentarian St. Clair Leacock showed that the 10-year grace period was fool’s gold since we will pay over EC$200 million in interest on the hospital loan.
For some time now, Plain Talk has repeatedly stated that our debt to Taiwan exceeds a billion dollars. These numbers, now in the public domain, confirm the educated guess upon which we offered the prediction. They also mean that one-third of our national debt, or 1 in every 3 dollars, is owed to Taiwan. Of critical importance as well is that more than EC$700 million of this enormous debt has accumulated since 2023.
The question Vincentians must ponder as we move towards the next general election is why Gonsalves deliberately understated the size of the hook he has placed in the national gill. He evidently knows that it is unjustifiable. He and his handlers in Taipei are deliberately saddling our nation with loans that unnecessarily entangle us in a relationship that does not serve us well.
The government officials favour Taiwanese loans due to the absence of spending conditionalities, which facilitates the official corruption that pervades our country.
Article 2.01 Section C of the US$125 million hospital loan reads: “notwithstanding anything provided to the contrary herein, the lender or any person designated by the lender in the administration of this loan shall in no event be responsible for monitoring or ensuring the actual use of the proceeds or any part thereof or any advance or the progress of the project.”
The contract’s plain language shows that the Taiwanese are backing their friend at SVG’s expense. They have no regard for the fundamentals — accountability, feasibility, ability to repay and/or transparency. Take the loan and use it as you see fit. We do not care.
No patriotic Vincentian should be celebrating this relationship with Taiwan. Sadly, due to a lack of understanding about national development and the superficial benefits Taiwan occasionally offers, too many of us fail to recognise the debt trap into which the ULP administration has led the nation.
The World Bank, another debt-trap institution, recently signalled a similar disregard for our economic well-being.
In 2022, the institution released $54 million of the US$98 million SVG borrowed to build the same hospital that Gonsalves borrowed US$125 million for in 2024. Recall Gonsalves’ claim that had he waited on the World Bank, the construction of the hospital would have been delayed by a year. This statement cannot be true, as the government had already received more than half of the US$98 million two years before the Taiwan hospital loan.
Where did this US$54 million, which the government had for two years, go? Did the World Bank insist on truthful answers? Recall Gonsalves’ claim that the World Bank loan was repurposed to deal with rehabilitation efforts following the destruction caused by Hurricane Beryl. An additional US$25 million was borrowed from the OPEC Fund to build the same hospital. We need an accounting of all of these loans.
In the classic text, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, John Perkins warns about these loans and projects that the governing political elite accepts, essentially strangle and retard the nation’s growth, all the while enriching the managers of the state and their business partners. They breed corruption.
It’s no surprise that the Unity Labour Party is awash with money as the election approaches. Taiwan and all other debt-trap institutions facilitate Gonsalves’ ability to buy political influence and support from a poor and suffering population. They do not work in our nation’s interest, and creative ways must be found to end the ruling elite’s stranglehold on citizens.
The Gonsalves/Taiwan incestuous relationship stands in the way of national development. The upcoming election presents a unique opportunity to vote out the Unity Labour Party Government and sever our ties with Taiwan.
