South Africa asked Taiwan to move its liaison office out of the administrative capital, Pretoria, in order to emphasize the countries’ “non-diplomatic” ties. China claims Taiwan as part of its own territory.
South Africa has asked Taiwan to move its unofficial embassy out of its administrative capital, Pretoria, the South African Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
China claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as part of its own territory. Taiwan’s government is only officially recognized by a dozen countries, while many states maintain informal diplomatic ties with the island.
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South Africa severed formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1997 but maintains informal ties.
China is South Africa’s largest trade partner. Both states are members of the BRICS bloc of developing economies which is set to hold its annual summit next week in the Russian city of Kazan.
Well, the world has seen and allowed for much sillier and dumber things that.
But the interesting thing here is that a lot of countries don’t acknowledge the opposite. For example, this is the US’s official position on the One China Policy:
The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position.
The US acknowledges that Chinese … have a view, and doesn’t challenge it. But never does the US say that Taiwan is a part of China.
In fact, the US gave the Six Assurances to the gov’t on Taiwan later, one of which is,
Has not altered its position regarding the sovereignty over Taiwan
And if I’m understanding correctly, the US is just one of a number of countries that refuse to state or concede outright that Taiwan is a part of China. They may not spell out the opposite (realpolitik as a price to engage with the PRC), but it’s still a case where silence can speak volumes, I think.
