South Africa Puts More Pressure on Taipei Liaison Office to Move from Pretoria to Johannesburg

 The Daily Maverick published on 23 July 2025 an article titled "SA Government Officially Withdraws Recognition of Taiwan's Office in Pretoria" by Peter Fabricius.

The South African government officially withdrew its recognition of Taipei's representative office in the capital of Pretoria.  South Africa, under pressure from Beijing, insists that the office be renamed the Taipei Commercial Office and moved to the commercial center of Johannesburg.  The government in Taipei is refusing to accept the decision.  

Background on South African Demand that Taiwan Move Its Office

 The Daily Maverick published on 17 October 2024 an article titled "Diplomatic Row Looms after South African Government Demands That Taiwan Move Its Office Out of Pretoria" by Peter Fabricius.

The article provides additional background on the decision by South Africa, at the request of China, that Taiwan move its "Taipei Liaison Office" from the political capital of Pretoria to the commercial center of Johannesburg.

Taiwan Rejects South African Demand to Move Liaison Office

 The Associated Press published on 22 October 2024 an article titled "Taiwan Rejects South African Demand to Move Its Representative Office from Capital" by Christopher Bodeen.  

Taiwan has rejected South Africa's demand that it moves its liaison office in the political capital of Pretoria to the commercial center of Johannesburg, arguing this would violate a 1997 agreement between the two sides on the location of their mutual representative offices.  

South Africa Downgrades Taiwan Liaison Office

 Agence France Presse posted on 18 October 2024 an article titled "Tawan Blames China for S. Africa's Order to Move Liaison Office."

South Africa has asked Taiwan to move its "Taipei Liaison Office" from the political capital of Pretoria to the commercial center of Johannesburg and rebrand it as a trade office.  At the same time, the South African foreign ministry said it is rebranding the "South African Liaison Office" in Taipei as a trade office.  Beijing responded that South Africa made the "right decision."

Comment:  Beijing does not object to Taipei having trade offices outside political capitals, but strongly opposes any Taiwan office in another country's political capital.  China certainly put pressure on South Africa to make these changes.  

Africa and The Safe Cities Index

The Economist Intelligence Unit released in August 2019 The Safe Cities Index 2019 that ranks 60 large cities across 57 indicators covering digital security, health security, infrastructure security, and personal security.

The highest ranked city was Tokyo. The study includes only 4 cities in Africa, all of them ranking low: Johannesburg (44), Casablanca (54), Cairo (55), and Lagos (60).

Growth of Chinatown in Johannesburg

Writing for the Mail and Guardian on 12 July 2013, Ufrieda Ho describes the growth of Chinatown in the Cyrildene section of Johannesburg in an article titled "The Arch Angle on Booming Chinatown."