International Relations Expert, Prof. Vladimir Antwi-Danso has shot down a possible diplomatic row between Ghana and China over the Aisha Huang re-arrest and impending prosecution.
Speaking in an interview with Joy FM on September 7, Professor Antwi-Danso said the current development is unlikely to put a strain on the country’s diplomatic relations with the Asian powerhouse because the person at the center of the issue, Aisha Huang, was not important.
He added that China would not use ‘such a stupid person as a spy’ to achieve an objective within Ghana’s jurisdiction.
He was responding to comments by the Director of Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Professor Kwesi Aning, who averred that illegal small-scale mining kingpin was a Chinese state spy sent to wage economic warfare on the country.
“I shudder to think a very important person in China would do that thing. No, she is not, she is not an important person [in China] and it will not bring any diplomatic row between us and China. Absolutely not! China needs us more than we do, people do not know this…China is too big to send such a stupid person as a spy,” Professor Antwi-Danso emphasized.
Sharing his views further on why it is difficult prosecuting the Chinese galamsey kingpin, Professor Antwi-Danso said he suspected she had the backing of politicians.
“I strongly suspect that she has some big wigs either in politics or the governance system in Ghana and she is exploiting that to her advantage…,” he stated.
Aisha Huang was recently arrested for reentry into the country and engaging in galamsey-related activities. She is reported to have entered the country via the Togo boarder after her deportation.
She has since been remanded and is set to make a court appearance with three others on September 14.
The Attorney General’s office has also assured that it will prosecute Aisha Huang for her past and present crimes. It will be recalled that Aisha Huang gained notoriety as an illegal mining kingpin in 2017.
She was arrested for the same conduct but later deported with the state discontinuing the trial against her.
Justifying why the state had to deport the Chinese national, the Senior Minister, Nana Yaw Osafo Maafo, addressing some concerns of Ghanaians in the diaspora at a town hall meeting on April 18, 2019, revealed that, "Putting [Aisha Huang] in jail in Ghana is not going to solve your money problem. It is not going to make you happy or me happy."
But President Akufo-Addo in 2019 said the deportation of the Chinese galamsey kingpin was a ‘mistake’.
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International Relations Expert, Prof. Vladimir Antwi-Danso