US and UK lawmakers who are on foreign policy committees yesterday urged South Africa to rescind an order to relocate Taiwan’s representative office from Pretoria in a sign of Western disquiet over the matter.
Their comments came days after French lawmakers on the Taiwan-France parliamentary friendship group denounced South Africa’s decision as a blow against democracy.
In late October last year, the South African government publicly stated that Taiwan’s representative office had to relocate out of Pretoria, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said was due to pressure from China.
Photo: CNA
“The South African government needs to stop yielding to the Chinese Communist Party’s [CCP] puppeteering,” US Representative Young Kim, a ranking member of the US House Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia and Nonproliferation, wrote on X on Thursday. “I stand with Taiwan against the CCP’s fear-mongering and coercion.”
US Representative Mark Green, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, also wrote on X that he agreed with US Senator Ted Cruz in condemning the decision, adding that to bow to CCP pressure is a mistake.
Cruz on Tuesday wrote on X: “The South African government seems to be going out of their way to alienate the United States and our allies.”
He announced the same day that to protest a land appropriation bill promoted by the South African government, he would not attend the G20 meeting in Johannesburg.
US Representative Chris Smith, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, issued a statement saying Pretoria should be held responsible for “reneging on its prior agreement with Taiwan.”
South Africa had demanded Taiwan to relocate the nation’s de facto embassy “at the apparent behest of the CCP government and in apparent violation of its agreement with democratic Taiwan,” he said.
This sends a “very negative signal to the US and the democratic world,” Smith said.
The US wishes for good relations with the South African government, yet “negative, backsliding steps” taken by Pretoria “cast a pall on our relationship,” he added.
UK lawmakers also criticized the move, with International Development Select Committee Chair and British Member of Parliament (MP) Sarah Champion thanking South African MP Emma Powell for exposing Beijing’s “deeply disturbing bullying” of Taiwan.
House of Lords member David Alton, who chairs the UK Parliament Joint Committee on Human Rights, reposted Champion’s post with an image showing a comment on standing up to oppressors by Nelson Mandala.
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