By James Lee-Jiang:
Taiwan has embarked on a fight-back against South Africa’s decision to downgrade its liaison office in the country to a commercial office, a move seen as undermining Taiwan’s sovereignty. This week, Taipei announced a move to halt the export of its famous chips to South Africa in retaliation for the country’s decision to change the status of the Taipei Liaison Office in Pretoria and its satellite in Cape Town to a commercial office.
Taiwan is a global leader in the electronics and semiconductor industries, with companies like the famous Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), situated at Hsinchu industrial hub, 86 km outside Taipei, a major contributor to international exports of chips. Taiwan intends to use its muscle as the top exporter of this high-demand product as a weapon to fight its isolation by Pretoria. Taiwanese brands in the South African market include the popular Acer computers, Asus computers, and a wide range of electronics and goods, such as bicycle parts and Alpha switches.
Pretoria had last year demanded that the Taiwan office in Pretoria should move to Johannesburg, some 45 kilometres from the capital, where it is located, in an apparent pressure on it from Beijing. China is trying to squeeze Taiwan out of Africa and elsewhere in the world in pursuit of its One-China Policy doctrine. China regards the island as part of its territory, but Taiwan insists it is an independent sovereign state with no link to mainland China. It also feared losing its democracy under communist China’s control.
Despite Taiwan’s resistance against the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO)’s order to relocate its liaison office, situated in Francis Baard Street near the Union Buildings state headquarters in Pretoria and some pressure from foreign countries such as the United States, the South African government still maintained that the office should move out of Pretoria.
Following the recent visit to China by Deputy President Paul Mashatile, South Africa has gone further to downgrade the Taiwan office. On 21 July, South Africa issued an official notice formalising the renaming of Taiwan’s two missions as the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” In its notice, the South African government cited its “one China” policy and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 to justify renaming and downgrading Taiwan’s office. Defending the decision, DIRCO said in a statement that relocating and rebranding the Taipei office was “standard diplomatic practice” and “a true reflection of the nonpolitical and nondiplomatic nature of the relationship between the Republic of South Africa and Taiwan”.
Prior to Mashatile’s visit in July, South Africa had twice asked Taiwan to move its representative office, a move that the Taipei government criticised as part of Beijing’s campaign to further limit Taiwan’s international presence. It resisted and was supported by Western countries, particularly some US lawmakers who were vocal in opposing the Pretoria decision.
On Tuesday, Philippe Yen (顏嘉良), director-general for Taiwan Foreign Ministry’s Department of West Asian and African Affairs, told journalists at a news briefing that to “safeguard national sovereignty and dignity, we are discussing countermeasures with relevant government agencies, including restricting chip exports to South Africa,” The Ministry described the downgrade of its diplomatic presence in the country as “crude action”. This week, it issued a statement expressing Taipei’s displeasure and intention to act against South Africa.
Since October last year, Taipei has been attempting to engage Pretoria in negotiations about the plight of the office after the notice to vacate, to no avail. As a last resort, the country is contemplating withholding its chip exports to South Africa, hoping that it would change its stance. Some in Taipei suggested that the South African liaison office in Taipei should be downgraded and relocated away from the capital, to give Pretoria a taste of its own medicine.
China News Agency quoted Yen via Focus Taiwan as saying, however, the types of Taiwanese chips involved in the proposed measure and the duration of any restrictions have yet to be finalized. He abhorred what he called South Africa’s “crude action,” urging Pretoria to halt the move and to initiate negotiations with Taiwan to resolve the issue. According to Yen, the two liaison offices in Pretoria and Cape Town continue to operate normally.
US President Donald Trump, whom South African seems to fear and respect, is yet to make a direct pronouncement on the issue. Some believe that if Trump were to raise the Taiwan question as one of the conditions for negotiating tariffs with South Africa, Pretoria could be forced to bend on its anti-Taiwan stance. Should Trump intervene for Taiwan, the Ramaphosa administration would be caught in a dilemma of having to satisfy China as its leading trading ally or to listen to Trump. That would be a Hobson’s Choice for Pretoria, which has a flip-flopping foreign policy.
Lately, China seems to have upped the pressure on South Africa to remove Taiwan from within the diplomatic centre of Pretoria and the latest action by Pretoria symbolises that. At the same time, Pretoria understands the importance of its relationship with the United States, which has invested in at least 600 firms in the country for a very long time. Already, some in the country, including various experts, have expressed fear that should any of the major US companies withdraw from South Africa, that would have a devastating impact on its economy, particularly in terms of industrial job losses. Additional reporting by CNA – @NewsSA_Online
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