SA SHOULD drop its ideological baggage and allow closer trading ties with Taiwan, says Taiwan’s vice-minister of foreign affairs, David Lin.
SA — which derecognised its apartheid-era ally as a sovereign state and opened diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China in 1998 — should be more flexible in its dealings with Taiwan, Lin said last month.
SA stood to gain from Taiwan’s know- how in industries such as life sciences and technology, but it continues to impose unnecessary restrictions on Taiwanese travellers, Lin, the Taiwanese government’s equivalent of a director-general, told a visiting group of South African journalists last month.
For Taiwan, the game is to build links with other countries while tip-toeing around their relationships with the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan, now recognised by only 23 countries, in contrast with the formal links China has with 171 sovereign states, hosted a large number of foreign journalists at the end of last month in a publicity blitz timed, no doubt strategically, for a week before the high- profile China-Africa summit in Egypt.
“We are hoping the South African government, especially the leadership … the new president ( ) is more flexible in dealing with Taiwan,” Lin said. “We are not going to impede on your relations with mainland China. (Many countries) have a one-China policy, but in practice we can find some flexibility.”
The issue is sensitive. Asked for an assessment of SA’s policy towards Taiwan, the Department of International Relations and Co-operation issued only a terse statement reiterating the one-China policy as its guide for dealings with both. “The ‘One China Policy’ is a generally accepted principle that there is but one China and that mainland China including Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are all part of that China,” it said.
Post-apartheid SA has been rigid in its dealings with Taiwan, says Martyn Davies, director of the Gordon Institute of Business Science’s Asia centre. “There was a knee-jerk reaction…. It wasn’t pressure from the People’s Republic of China. It was just an overreaction on our part to distance ourselves from Taiwan.
“Other examples, such as Australia, engage Taiwan much more pragmatically on a commercial basis. There’s certainly scope with a one-China policy for us to be a little bit more proactive in engaging Taiwan on a commercial basis.”
The government agrees there is room for better commercial ties but remains guarded. Asked whether SA thought it could expand business links with Taiwan and preserve its political relationship with China, the answer was brief. “Yes,” the department said.
blebym@bdfm.co.za