At the same time, the South African government has reportedly stepped up pressure on Taiwan to vacate its Pretoria office.

The Chinese embassy in Pretoria has barred Democratic Alliance Federal Chairperson Ivan Meyer and his family from visiting China, Hong Kong, and Macao because he recently visited Taiwan.

The embassy said that it regarded the visit to Taiwan by Meyer, who is also Western Cape MEC for agriculture, economic development, and tourism, as "blatantly violating" Beijing's One China policy.

Meanwhile, the SA Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) this month wrote to the Taiwan representative giving it a new ultimatum to vacate its Pretoria office by the end of March, said diplomats.

Taiwan suspects that the Chinese embassy in Pretoria is putting pressure on the SA government to evict the Taiwan representative.

China evidently believes that the location of the office in South Africa's administrative capital -- alongside the embassies of all the countries that SA recognises diplomatically -- implies diplomatic recognition of Taiwan too.

Diplomats have warned that Pretoria's move against Taiwan has attracted the attention of US President Donald Trump's new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, a China hawk. Last October -- before he became secretary of state -- Rubio posted on X: "The South...