Taipei — The SA government has given Taiwan a deadline of the end of March to relocate the island’s de facto embassy outside Pretoria, the Taiwanese foreign ministry said, blaming Chinese pressure for the move.
SA severed official diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1997 and maintains formal, and very close, relations with China, which views the democratically governed island as Chinese territory with no right to the trappings of a state.
In a statement late on Sunday, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said the government had sent a letter in late January demanding the de facto Taiwanese embassy leave Pretoria before the end of March and “even be renamed as a trade office”.
The demand “shows China’s suppression against us in SA is becoming more serious”, it added, saying, however, that negotiations between Taiwan and SA were ongoing.
The de facto SA embassy in Taipei did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did China’s foreign ministry.
SA made a request last year for the Taipei liaison office to leave Pretoria.
China is SA’s largest trading partner globally and one with which it is looking to expand co-operation in areas such as renewable energy.
Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims and said it had a right to forge ties with other countries.
Taiwan has formal diplomatic ties with only 12 countries, and in Africa it has a single ally left, Eswatini, which is almost entirely surrounded by SA.
Reuters
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