Just months after Representative to South Africa Oliver Liao (廖文哲) arrived in Pretoria, South Africa began a campaign to downgrade its relationship with Taiwan — thrusting him into a geopolitical drama.
While South Africa decades ago broke formal ties with Taipei in favor of relations with Beijing, the country wanted to dilute things further.
In April last year, a formal notice arrived to move Liao’s office from the seat of government to the financial hub of Johannesburg, ending five decades of representation in Pretoria.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwan refused. South Africa, which counts China as its largest trading partner, responded with bureaucratic firepower on an official government Web site, where it changed the office’s address, wiped all mention of Liao and listed the names of other Taiwanese staff — at least one of whom was dead.
“They put on some names of our staff who have already passed away,” he said in an interview late last month. “Wow.”
The dispute is a stark example of the precarious situation Taiwan faces. While a global spending boom around artificial intelligence has turbocharged the nation’s position in critical supply chains, even countries that do not recognize Taipei are becoming more inhospitable as they draw closer to China, the world’s second-largest economy.
Over the past decade, nations ranging from Burkina Faso to Kiribati and Honduras have cut diplomatic ties with Taipei.
However, with the exception of Nigeria in 2017, Taiwan has been allowed to keep representation in their capitals, Liao said.
That makes his battle in South Africa all the more significant.
Speaking at his residence in Pretoria’s Waterkloof Ridge, a sleepy diplomatic quarter that houses many ambassadors’ homes — including that of the US nearby and India’s just a block away — the heavy hand of China’s government looms large for Liao.
“Why bother to make such a move? I think it’s very clear,” Liao said of South Africa’s decision. “Common sense tells us who’s behind the scenes.”
The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) did not respond to requests for comment.
South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said that the decision was in line with international practice.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) did not answer directly when asked at a briefing on Sept. 24 if Beijing had asked South Africa to close or move the liaison office.
Guo said that “we commend the South African government’s abiding commitment to the one China principle.”
The spat began in early 2023, when DIRCO tore up a 1997 agreement forged with Taipei by former South African president Nelson Mandela — a deal which, according to Taiwan, among other things allows it to keep the liaison office name and location in Pretoria.
Instead, the government agency demanded that Liao’s office be downgraded and moved about 56km to Johannesburg.
Taiwan has been refusing to comply, with the deadline for the relocation extended from October last year to March.
On July 21, DIRCO issued an official notice unilaterally changing the name to the Taipei Commercial Office and backdating the decision to March 31.
“Abandoning the existing agreement is literally a denial of Madiba’s wisdom given that the existing agreement was so delicately and wisely crafted,” Liao said, using Mandela’s clan name. “They made so much effort to come up with that agreement with Taiwan in order to preserve the friendship and collaboration.”
Now, that relationship is in tatters. In an unprecedented move, Taiwan on Sept. 23 slapped a ban on its semiconductor chip exports to South Africa, saying that its actions “undermined its national and public security,” before suspending it two days later to allow further talks.
For Africa’s most industrialized economy and many others, staying in China’s good graces invariably comes at Taiwan’s expense.
With the administration of US President Donald Trump imposing a 30 percent tariff on exports from South Africa, it needs to tap demand from China for its goods.
In August, South African Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen said that increased exports to China are a priority, with his country having secured duty-free access for five varieties of fruit. That would add to current shipments of nuts and avocados, as well as platinum, chrome, coal and iron ore.
The ties go well beyond trade and economics, especially after South Africa in 2010 joined the BRICS political bloc that was cofounded by China. In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is expected to attend a G20 leaders’ meeting in Johannesburg, his fifth visit to the country, and China’s navy has conducted exercises with its South African counterpart.
Ahead of Xi’s visit, pressure is mounting on Liao to move.
“The current situation has already created a sense of not only instability, but also frustration,” Liao said. “It’s not healthy, and it’s not encouraging at all because the purpose of our presence here is to promote friendship and collaboration, but everything has come to a total halt.”
At threat are ties originally forged during South Africa’s apartheid era, when the two countries, both isolated, developed a closer bond.
A wave of Taiwanese migration to South Africa began in the late 1970s with the South African government offering incentives to attract investment, mainly in the textile sector.
Taiwanese immigrants were given “honorary white” status, exempting them from South African laws that enforced racial segregation.
Today, according to the Taipei Liaison Office, 450 Taiwanese companies operate in South Africa and have invested about US$2 billion. More than 100 South Africans go to Taiwan on scholarships every year.
Still, the Taiwanese community has shrunk to an estimated 8,000 from 50,000 in 1998. Commerce is also shriveling, with South Africa selling Taiwan goods including coal and corn, while smartphones and chemicals head the other way. From US$2.3 billion in 2022, trade fell by more than one-third last year.
“We are not welcome here,” Liao said.
If Taiwanese “don’t feel that they’re welcome and cherished here,” they leave, he said.
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