US and French lawmakers yesterday criticized South Africa’s demand that Taiwan move its representative office out of Pretoria, saying that it has jeopardized South Africa’s relationship with Western democracies.
On Oct. 7 last year, South Africa requested that the office move by the end of that month, a demand renewed late last month following months of negotiations.
US Senator Ted Cruz on Tuesday wrote on social media that South Africa was “going out of its way to alienate the US and our allies.”
Photo: CNA
“Their timeline to expel our Taiwanese allies from Pretoria is deeply troubling, undermines the national security interests of the US and our allies, and will deepen tensions between the US and South Africa,” Cruz said.
The senator said he would use his position as chairman of the Africa subcommittee on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee to investigate Pretoria’s “concerning” decisions.
Cruz’s comments came a day after US Senator Marsha Blackburn voiced support for Taiwan over the matter on social media.
“The United States must stand with Taiwan and stand up to South Africa,” she wrote, adding that South Africa could be removed from the US’ African Growth and Opportunity Act should it “bully Taiwan” in collaboration with China.
Separately, several French lawmakers backed Taiwan on the matter at an event hosted in Paris by the Taipei Representative Office in France.
French Senator Alain Richard, a former minister of the armed forces, said that South Africa’s “willing diplomatic compliance” was another instance of the many actions its government has taken against the alliance of democracies.
South Africa’s request is not representative of a larger trend among Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to abandon Taipei, but Beijing’s ideological and economic infiltration of Pretoria, he said.
The move would not impede Taiwan’s bid for international participation, which continues to gather momentum as the world comes to see the nation’s inherent merit, he said.
“Is South Africa still a sovereign nation? If the answer is ‘yes,’ it should say that its internal affairs are not for others to interfere with,” said French Senator Olivier Cadic, who is also the vice president of the French Senate Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces Committee.
French National Assembly Deputy Marie-Noelle Battistel, president of the French National Assembly Taiwan-France Friendship Group, said South Africa breached its agreement with Taiwan in demanding the nation move its representative office.
French National Assembly Deputy Nicolas Metzdorf said South Africa’s demand was “a terrible decision” and that Chinese interference has played a significant role in Pretoria’s authoritarian shift.
“The growing influence of BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] is incompatible with the democratic values of France,” he said, adding that Taiwan has the right to be recognized like every nation.
“We must respect the wish of Taiwanese for their independence to be recognized whether other nations are willing or not,” he said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS