Taiwan rejects South African demand to move its representative office from capital

By Christopher Bodeen

Taiwan has rejected South Africa’s demand that it move its representative office in the country from the capital, Pretoria, to the commercial center of Johannesburg, in the latest attempt by the self-governing island republic to push back against Chinese moves to diplomatically isolate it.

Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jeff Liu said at a news conference on Tuesday that the demand to move or shut the office violated a 1997 agreement between the sides on the location of their mutual representative offices following the severing of formal diplomatic relations.

“Facing this kind of unreasonable demand, our side cannot grant our acceptance,” Liu said.

South Africa maintains a liaison office in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, and the sides have a strong commercial relationship. The offices function as de-facto embassies and consulates since the two sides lack formal diplomatic ties. They were broken when South Africa cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan to