No harm in Taipei trip
Edna Molewa’s article (Basic lessons in diplomacy — in case the DA is confused over Taipei, January 16) was informative about the state of SA’s international relations.
Taiwan’s position in the world is certainly anomalous, and once apartheid ended SA correctly opened full diplomatic relations with Beijing. Then it downgraded relations with Taiwan, while permitting active trade and other nonpolitical links with the island.
The main purpose of Molewa’s article was clearly concerned with domestic politics rather than foreign relations. She accepts that as the official opposition, it is natural for DA politicians to take positions contrary to the government, but then accuses it of pursuing “an independent and rogue foreign policy” by allowing one of its office bearers to go to Taiwan, thus endangering SA’s relationship with “a major trading partner” — that is, China.
She implies that Solly Msimanga’s jaunt to Taiwan was in some degree treasonable. Maybe she thinks the government should prescribe where its citizens can travel, rather as the apartheid government did when it issued South African passports with a list of countries for which the passport was not valid.
I am not a member of the DA, nor do I know what its “foreign policy” is. I have no idea whether the purpose of the trip was indeed “to establish city-to-city diplomatic relations”. If so, the DA doesn’t know that only states can conduct diplomatic relations.
The trip seems to have been intended to build a relationship between Pretoria and Taipei, rather like the city twinning that has become so popular. This fosters links between the cities, but has nothing to do with state-to-state official diplomatic relations. The visit might have been problematic in the state’s eyes, but it was certainly not illegal, as the article suggests.
The DA may have erred in labelling the trip “diplomatic”, but it has done no harm to our country’s international position nor, I should imagine, to our government’s relationship with Beijing. I am sure Beijing is far more upset with Donald Trump at the moment than with SA. The first congratulatory phone call Trump took after the election was from the president of Taiwan.
Sara Pienaar
Cape Town