TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan may cease all cooperation with South Africa if Taiwan's representative office is forcibly relocated.
A diplomatic source told CNA Wednesday that Taiwan would in response suspend all cooperation and impose retaliatory actions. The official said South Africa was moving forward with a “malicious sabotaging” of a 1997 bilateral agreement that allowed for the office's location in Pretoria after diplomatic ties were severed in 1998.
In October, the South African government demanded that the office be relocated, but Taiwan refused. In January, South Africa repeated its demand that the office be moved and set the end of March as a deadline.
In addition, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation on March 5 renamed the Taipei Liaison Office as the "Taipei Commercial Office" on its website. It is now categorized under "international organizations represented in South Africa" rather than as an individual entity.
The source said Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has convened multiple emergency meetings and instructed the ministry and the representative office to monitor developments. The source added Taiwan has lodged a formal protest and prepared retaliatory economic and trade countermeasures.
The official said that if South Africa persists then Taiwan will respond by suspending cooperation in all fields, terminating training programs for South African nationals in Taiwan, and imposing stricter visa reviews. These measures will remain in place “until concrete goodwill is demonstrated toward Taiwan.”
The source also criticized South Africa for repeatedly aligning itself with China. The source noted that its recent “unreasonable and overbearing actions” have drawn dissatisfaction from G7 countries, including the US, damaging South Africa’s long-standing international image as a successful post-apartheid democracy.
The official said such actions “stand in stark contrast to the spirit of former President Nelson Mandela's steadfast pursuit of freedom.” The source lamented that the country's democratic transformation “now appears to be a mere shell of its former self.”
On Feb. 6, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he would not attend the G20 foreign ministers' meeting to protest South Africa's passage of its Expropriation Bill. China’s Ambassador to South Africa, Wu Peng (吳鵬) then posted a photo on X showing his meeting with South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola, reaffirming China’s support for South Africa.
