VICTORIA, Seychelles — China’s commitment to a community with a shared future with Seychelles remains the guiding principle of the bilateral relationship, the Chinese ambassador, Lin Nan, has written in an opinion commentary published this week. The piece follows a December 2023 central conference in Beijing on work relating to foreign affairs. It is the ambassador’s first extended public comment since the meeting.
The commentary is, in effect, a restatement of Chinese foreign policy language in a Seychelles context. Ambassador Lin writes that small island developing states face common challenges, and that closer co-operation between China and Seychelles, on infrastructure, climate adaptation, and human resource development, is the most useful response. He frames the bilateral relationship as a partnership of equals. The commentary also emphasises the principle of non-interference in domestic affairs.
For Seychellois readers, the piece is most relevant for the projects it points to rather than the diplomatic phrasing. Ambassador Lin refers to the recently completed carrying capacity study for the Seychelles, funded by Beijing, and to ongoing work on a new foreign affairs office building. Both are practical deliverables, and the ambassador uses them to argue that the relationship produces tangible outcomes on the ground. He also notes a small fisheries cold-chain grant approved in late 2023.
The ambassador’s comments come against a backdrop of growing scrutiny, in the wider Indian Ocean region, of the terms on which China finances large infrastructure projects. Seychelles has been less exposed to that debate than some neighbours, in part because the scale of Chinese lending has been modest, and in part because most Chinese-built projects have been on concessional terms. The commentary does not address that broader debate directly, but it does emphasise the principle of debt sustainability.
On the ground, the Chinese community in Seychelles remains small but visible, concentrated in construction, fisheries, and retail. The ambassador notes that people-to-people ties are an important complement to government-to-government relations. He points to the Confucius Institute at the University of Seychelles as an example of the kind of long-term educational linkage that supports the wider relationship. The embassy expects to host a small cultural week in May.
The full text of the opinion commentary is available on the Chinese embassy’s website.
