Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: JW Hurter/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
THE TAIWANESE GOVERNMENT is considering responses to South Africa ordering it to move its representative office out of the capital of Pretoria. In particular, the Taiwanese government has suggested that it may end official cooperation on projects with the South African government or raise visa requirements for South African travelers to Taiwan.
The South African government has raised demands that Taiwan relocate its representative office throughout the past year. This is thought to be the result of strengthening political and economic relations between South Africa and China. This in itself is not surprising, with China and South Africa often framed alongside each other as part of the BRICS economic grouping.
Taiwan does not have official ties with South Africa, though it does have substantial business ties, and there are Taiwanese communities in South Africa. Taiwan maintained ties with South Africa even during the course of international condemnation because of South Africa’s apartheid policies.
This proves similar to how Taiwan maintained substantive ties with other countries that have been widely condemned internationally as abusing human rights, such as Israel. This is the case even if at present Taiwan only has formal diplomatic relations with a handful of countries, which are all smaller than it in terms of the size of population or economy.
Taiwan’s only formal diplomatic ally in Africa is Eswatini. Eswatini’s government is an authoritarian one, as a country in which freedom of political association is forbidden and ruled over by one of the world’s last absolute monarchs. South Africa’s actions, then, can be understood as further constraining the international space Taiwan has available to it in Africa.
Previously, the Taiwanese government considered ordering South Africa to move its representative office out of Taipei. This was framed as a reciprocal move.
Photo credit: JMK/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
South Africa initially backed off from its calls for a relocation, which began late last year. This occurred after negotiations with Taiwanese representatives in South Africa. At least one South African political party also expressed support for Taiwan. In turn, Taiwan also dropped its demand for South Africa to move its representative office out of Taipei.
But pressure on Taiwan resumed this year in February. The timing of this resumption of pressure is thought to be linked to the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, with China aiming to signal to the Trump administration through South Africa that it continued to adhere to its stances on Taiwan.
South Africa also took the unusual move of unilaterally changing the name of Taiwan’s representative office in South Africa from “Taipei Liaison Office” to the “Taipei Commercial Office.” It is a relatively new move by countries seeking to pressure Taiwan’s diplomatic representation abroad to unilaterally change the name of representative offices.
It is to be seen what Taiwan does next to register its dissatisfaction with South Africa’s actions, then. It is also to be seen if the US under Trump takes any interest in the matter. In past years, the US passed legislation aimed at shoring up Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic allies in the form of the 2020 TAIPEI Act. Some of the voices that pushed for the TAIPEI Act have, too, been critical of South Africa.
At the same time, the diplomatic policy of the second Trump administration may not be particularly interested in events in South Africa. Instead, there may be greater interest in seeking to pressure countries on America’s perimeter or a shift toward multipolarism in which major powers have free reign within their respective spheres of influence away from the current globalist orientation that has maintained the “rules-based international order” that the US has historically propped up since the end of World War II. This is to be observed.