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.