The Hudson Institute posted on 26 April 2024 an hour plus podcast titled "South Africa's Historic Election: A Conversation with Inkatha Freedom Party National Spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa" and Hudson Senior Fellow Joshua Meservey.
The discussion between minute 37 and 1 hour and 2 minutes dealt with US-China competition in Africa and the Inkatha Freedom Party's (IFP) relations with China. (The IFP is South Africa's fourth largest political party.) The spokesperson criticized China's lack of transparency but emphasized that China is an economic powerhouse with money. Hence you have to take it seriously. He added it is important that South Africa pursue its own interests vis-a-vis both China and the United States, including a concern about human rights.
The IFP interacts with the Dalai Lama and Taiwan, both anathema to China, because of its historical relationship with them. The Chinese embassy in South Africa has expressed its unhappiness with the IFP. But the IFP also deals with China on a range of other issues and does not have an antagonistic relationship with China. The embassy extended a standing invitation to the IFP to visit China and Tibet. When pressed why African countries, including South Africa, have not been critical of China's policy in Xinjiang, the spokesperson replied that you dare not antagonize Beijing on such issues.
