The government is mulling countermeasures after South Africa refused to rescind its unilateral renaming of the nation’s representative office, a source said yesterday.
The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation Web site on Sunday listed the Taipei Liaison Office as the Taipei Commercial Office in line with Pretoria’s move to distance itself from Taiwan in China’s favor.
Commenting on condition of anonymity, an official with knowledge of the matter said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would not limit Taiwan’s response to the already-issued protests and condemnations.
Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
The ministry is preparing to impose stricter visa rules for travelers from South Africa, suspend bilateral exchanges, and enforce retaliatory economic and trade measures, the official said.
The dispute started last year when South Africa sought to downgrade Taiwan’s representative office by categorizing it as a trade office and ordering the office to relocate from Pretoria to Johannesburg.
South Africa in January reiterated its demands and set a deadline of the end of this month for compliance without waiting to conclude then-ongoing diplomatic negotiations, the official said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has asked officials to formulate a response following South Africa’s renaming of the office, they said.
South Africa’s support for China’s international policies has resulted in increased diplomatic isolation and has antagonized Western nations, the official said.
The South African government’s handling of foreign and domestic affairs sparked discontent in the G7 and has harmed the nation’s image as a successful post-apartheid democratic state, they said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expelled the South African ambassador to the US in a sign of a growing rift between the two nations, the official said, adding that the US had cut aid to South Africa.
Both the US House of Representatives and the Senate have denounced South Africa’s unilateral name change of the representative office, they said.
Removing South Africa from the African Growth and Opportunity Act is one of the measures being discussed in the US, the official said.
Pretoria faces mounting domestic problems due to a tepid economy and social strife, despite supposedly receiving perks from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, they said.
“It is regrettable that former president Nelson Mandela’s spirit of struggling for freedom has been ignored, leaving [South Africa’s] democracy a shell of its former self,” the official said.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
RSS