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To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (4907)	12/29/1997 8:44:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116756

Bobby, I know that you have "illusions" forgive me an expression about Clinton/democrats and other "good" intentioned people in power., South Africa's China swap an ironic blow to Taiwan 05:17 a.m. Dec 29, 1997 Eastern By Jeffrey Parker TAIPEI, Dec 29 (Reuters) - In the final days before South Africa switches official China ties from Taipei to Beijing, Taiwan views the diplomatic snub with bitterness and a sense of irony. Come January 1, Nelson Mandela's hard-won democracy will embrace a totalitarian China that still imprisons critics who challenge unelected power -- like Mandela in an earlier era. ''From our point of view, we feel betrayed by South Africa,'' said Ger Yeong-kuang, director of a constitutional affairs institute at National Taiwan University. ''The people and government here felt Mandela would keep his word and preserve ties and feel regret that he didn't.'' Commentators have noted that while Taiwan and South Africa have junked authoritarianism and taken common strides towards democracy, China's Communist Party still uses repression to bolster its authoritarian monopoly on power. ''We feel so helpless and frustrated, even though we feel we are on the right side of the global democratic trend with so many other countries,'' Ger said. During South Africa's decades as a global diplomatic pariah, Taiwan stood by the racist apartheid government while Beijing backed the banned Communist Party and, indirectly, Mandela's anti-apartheid African National Congress. But after Taiwan's 1987 lifting of martial law launched its own democratic reforms, Taipei strongly backed Mandela's party in South Africa's transition years leading to the 1994 vote that brought him to power. The gesture won Mandela's sympathy and, in the first years under his multiracial rule, Pretoria strove to keep ties with Taipei -- seen as a generous source of investment and aid. But South Africa also built new bridges with Beijing, making formal ties with Taipei increasingly untenable. The Independence Morning Post on Monday recalled bitterly how Mandela, before announcing the switchover in November 1996, had hailed Taiwan's contribution and his oft-made mark that it would be ''immoral'' to cancel diplomatic ties. But in the end, Mandela gave in to Beijing's unrelenting pressure and South Africa's desire to protect its surging links with China's huge and fast-growing economy. In view of China's rising global influence and its surging trade ties with South Africa, analysts say the only surprise is that Pretoria didn't act sooner. ''It's unfair as far as Taiwan is concerned, but Taiwan has to live with this kind of setback,'' said Taipei strategic analyst Andrew Yang. ''With communist China's power and influence increasing in the international community, any country that wants to maintain contacts with Taiwan has to consider whether its own interests will be jeopardised and compromised.'' The irony will deepen when Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, who arrived in Cape Town on Sunday for the switch, visits Robben Island -- the former penal colony where Mandela and other political prisoners languished for decades. Mandela has won credit in Taiwan for trying to keep the island's exiled Republic of China in the picture. The sometimes blunt-speaking ex-political prisoner irritated China by uttering what Beijing considers a political taboo -- a call for simultaneous formal ties with ''both Chinas.'' As expected, Beijing insisted Pretoria recognise only its People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate China, a model accepted by all but 30 of the world's states. Beijing has used its growing global clout to squeeze those states that still recognise Taiwan, hindering U.N. peacekeeping plans for Guatemala and Haiti and leading a U.N. boycott of a world forum on the Panama Canal held in Panama. China's diplomatic embargo aims eventually to force what it sees as a rebel-held province back under mainland sovereignty. South Africa-China direct trade is on track to hit US$1.6 billion in 1997, making China South Africa's sixth biggest trading partner -- not even counting $1.4 billion in trade with Hong Kong, 70 percent of which goes ultimately to China. Trade with Taiwan remains significant at US$1.8 billion. Though humiliating to an increasingly isolated Taiwan, South Africa's snub pales in significance beside earlier switchovers by far bigger friends of Taiwan. While Washington's 1979 switch was anticipated, capping an eight-year transition, it still stings. Taiwan in effect was a U.S. protectorate after the Chinese Nationalist republic, driven from the mainland in 1949, took refuge on the island. Taipei has yet to get over what it regards as a betrayal by South Korea, which gave no trace of notice before pulling out of Taiwan to open a Beijing embassy in 1992. Taipei mistakenly assumed Seoul could never recognise the ''close-as-lips-and-teeth'' ideological ally of its own bitter adversary, North Korea, despite their growing trade ties.