South Africa has asked Taiwan to move its liaison office out of its political capital Pretoria, in a move to please China.
Pretoria has given six months to Taiwan to relocate its diplomatic representation to Johannesburg instead.
China is South Africa’s first trading partner and the two countries drew closer against the backdrop of the deepening multipolarity that followed the rise of the BRICS as a counterweight to the West’s hegemony.
“We appreciate South Africa’s correct decision to relocate the Taipei liaison office out of its administrative capital, Pretoria. Taiwan independence is unpopular and doomed to failure,” said China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning.
China opened its embassy in South Africa in 1998, a year after Pretoria severed formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan over which Beijing claims sovereignty.