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.
Isn’t it time for the world to admit it’s really stupid to not acknowledge that an island that has total autonomy for decades is not part of another country?
Not if China has anything to say about it.
I haven’t clarified this with the ultimate source of all truth (ChatGPT) but I’m pretty sure there’s not actually that many countries that officially recognise Taiwan as anything independent country.
Literally in the part of the article the OP posted in the body of this post:
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 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,
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.
It is not the stated will of Taiwan. Taiwan also officially follows the One China principle.
So each side claims to be the rightful sovereign of all of China, while the other side is occupying some of that area.
Officially, yes, but it’s complicated. Unofficially they’re no longer supporting that claim but it remains in the constitution. And ironically, there is concern that relinquishing the claim over the mainland might be perceived as a pro-independence move and would antagonize the mainland authorities.