China firm on Taiwan issue

China firm on Taiwan issue

BEIJING (AFP): The issue of Taiwan is "the only obstacle" to
setting up Sino-South African diplomatic ties, China said
yesterday, as it rejected any possibility of letting Pretoria
recognize both Beijing and Taipei.

"We will never accept dual recognition," a foreign ministry
spokesman said, in response to remarks made Thursday by South
African President Nelson Mandela that his country would not sever
diplomatic ties with Taiwan in order to establish relations with
China.

"At present, the only obstacle in establishing diplomatic
relations between the two countries is the question of Taiwan,"
the spokesman said, stressing that Taiwan was an inalienable part
of China and Beijing the sole legitimate government of all China.

"This fact has been acknowledged and respected by the United
Nations and the vast majority of countries in the world," he
added.

Taiwan only has diplomatic relations with 29 countries, of
which South Africa is far and away the most important.

Taipei's desire to retain links with Pretoria at all costs was
reflected last year when, in a major policy change, the
government said it would be willing to share recognition by South
Africa with Beijing.

South Africa's strong links with Taiwan date to the apartheid
era, when the former white-minority government found a useful
ally in the isolated nationalist government.

Mandela's ruling African National Congress (ANC), meanwhile,
developed ties with China, which supported its armed struggle
against apartheid.

Most observers here had expected Mandela to switch recognition
from Taipei to Beijing after the ANC's victory in South Africa's
free, multi-racial elections last year.

The first South African parliamentary delegation to ever visit
China is currently in Beijing to discuss bilateral ties and it
received a stern lecture Tuesday from Foreign Minister Qian
Qichen on the importance China attaches to the Taiwan question.

Beijing has viewed Taiwan as a renegade province ever since
nationalist forces fled to the island in 1949 after losing a
civil war to the communists on the mainland.