Following a comprehensive, fully funded excursion through six major metropolitan areas in China late last year, Paraguayan legislator Leidy Galeano emerged with a shifted perspective. The opposition politician returned home persuaded that her nation’s continued diplomatic loyalty to Taiwan might be preventing substantial financial growth—a sentiment heavily emphasized by Chinese authorities throughout the visit.

Galeano, a representative of the nascent Yo Creo party, expressed a desire to replicate China’s rapid development within her own borders. Her political organization’s leadership has increasingly signaled a willingness to embrace closer relations with Beijing, moving away from the traditional alliance with Taipei.

These junkets, reportedly orchestrated by China’s consulate in Sao Paulo, are characterized by high-end accommodations, opulent dining, and excursions to iconic landmarks like the Great Wall. According to Paraguayan officials, these tours represent a strategic soft-power campaign designed to persuade the South American nation to abandon its recognition of Taiwan—a self-governed democracy that Beijing maintains is a part of its sovereign territory—in favor of the mainland.