Taiwan protests rep office name change on South African gov't website

Taipei, March 16 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Sunday that it had lodged an official protest over the "unilateral" change to the name of Taiwan's representative office on a South African government website.

The update to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) website -- now listing the "Taipei Liaison Office" as the "Taipei Commercial Office" -- is the latest salvo in a yearlong dispute that has seen Taiwan's representatives ordered to leave South Africa's administrative capital, Pretoria.

According to MOFA, the South African government has sought to "downgrade" the representative office and recategorize it as a "trade office" based in the commercial capital Johannesburg.

South Africa has set a deadline of the end of March for Taiwan to change the name of its representative office and relocate.

In a statement last year, DIRCO said that "relocating what will be rebranded as Trade Offices both in Taipei and in Johannesburg, which is standard diplomatic practice, will be a true reflection of the nonpolitical and nondiplomatic nature of the relationship between the Republic of South Africa and Taiwan."

However, MOFA has said that per an agreement signed the year before diplomatic relations between the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan's official name, and South Africa ended in 1998, Taiwan is permitted to operate a liaison office in Pretoria.

According to MOFA, any changes to the office's location and its name are not to be made until both sides reach an agreement on the issue following official negotiations.

Asked for comment Sunday, MOFA said it had lodged protests via Taiwan's office in Pretoria and directly with the South African representative office in Taipei over the "unilateral" name change.

DIRCO's claim that it is following U.N. General Assembly Resolution 2758 is "unreasonable and unacceptable," MOFA said.

Resolution 2758, adopted in 1971, resulted in the People's Republic of China (PRC) replacing the ROC as China's representative at the United Nations.