Suggestions that the Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Solly Msimanga, is contradicting the South African position on the “One China Policy” by travelling to Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, to honour an invitation by the Mayor of Taipei are short sighted and misrepresented, says Tshwane Mayoral Spokesperson, Mr Samkelo Mgobozi.
He said the Mayor has elected to take time out of his own personal leave to visit the Mayor of Taipei on his invitation to explore possible investment opportunities. This trip will also be at no cost to the City.
The One-China policy refers to the policy or view that there is only one state called “China”, despite the existence of two governments that claim to be “China”. As a policy, this means that countries seeking diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC, Mainland China) must break official relations with the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) and vice versa.
In 1998, after the fall of apartheid, South Africa commenced diplomatic relations with the PRC. This ‘normalisation’ of South Africa’s China policy came with a condition to recognise Beijing’s ‘One China’ policy proclaiming Taiwan, an inalienable part of China.
Mainland China’s population is 1.3 billion, Taiwan’s 23 million are obviously a minor addendum to this vast market.
According to Eldis, a development, policy, practice and research website, South Africa’s political relations with Beijing are excellent and provide a basis from which to foster South African economic interests in a diplomatic manner.
Beijing is relatively detached regarding economic relations with Taiwan if it does not touch on diplomatic recognition, hence South Africa need not be afraid to develop its economic links with Taipei.
Taiwan has largely abandoned its earlier policy of seeking diplomatic recognition and its current strategy is one with an emphasis on economic diplomacy. This opens policy space that should be used.
Mr Mgobozi said Mayor Msimanga believes that all potential opportunities for trade and investment must be diligently interrogated if “we are to fully harness bilateral relationships for the purposes of cultivating the opportunities so many of our people desperately need”.
“Creating opportunities for our people should transcend party politics and be a joint effort to explore any and all opportunities to liberate our people from poverty,” he said.
