Friendship cannot be bought. Taiwan needs to learn this...
TAIWAN threw its toys out of the cot this week, suspending co-operation programmes and treaties with South Africa including landing rights in Taipei, and recalling its ambassador.
In doing so, it effectively shut out access to President Mandela's pledge to maintain relations with Taiwan at the highest possible level short of diplomatic relations.
Stupid stupid stupid.
Madiba's offer of continued friendship with Taipei short of diplomatic ties was generous in the extreme. The ANC has every reason to resent Taiwan.
Taipei was a very close friend of apartheid. Images of the Taiwanese entourage rolling into this country with full military honours laid on by the Groot Krokodil are still fresh in our minds.
When it became clear that the ANC would be ruling the new South Africa, the Taiwanese switched sides, pouring money into ANC coffers before the elections, and following up with generous promises of future investment and aid.
But Beijing was insistent that relations with South Africa were incompatible with our diplomatic ties with Taipei.
Mandela's decision to switch diplomatic ties to China was sound. South Africa could not afford to lose Hong Kong. And China makes up a quarter of the world's population — a huge market.
But Taiwan decided that ties short of full diplomatic relations are not good enough.
They're shutting down a R200 million vocational training centre in Pretoria. They're shelving a petrochemical project which would have created 80 000 jobs.
They will no longer buy five million tons of coal per year from us. They will no longer buy R112 million worth of steel per year.
It would appear that Taipei has assumed that we are some banana republic that will turn around and beg for forgiveness if only the flow of aid and investment would resume.
But the Taiwanese have forgotten we are Africa's powerhouse. Our GDP, at US $200-billion, is not that far off Taiwan's $257-billion. Losing a half-billion will hurt, but won't break us.
On the other hand, Taipei has few real friends.
They were expelled from the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council on October 25, 1971, and withdrew on the same date from other charter-designated UN subsidiaries.
They were expelled from the IMF/World Bank group in 1980.
They are not a part of GATT even though they would desperately like to be.
They're attempting to retain membership in INTELSAT but will probably lose that too. They were suspended from the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1972.
They have no diplomatic representation in the US. Unofficial commercial and cultural relations are maintained through the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office with headquarters in Taipei and field offices in Washington and 10 other US cities
The US has no diplomatic representation in Taiwan. Unofficial commercial and cultural relations are maintained through a private institution, the American Institute in Taiwan.
Taiwan is an important transit point for heroin, is a major drug money laundering centre, and trade centre for endangered species.
This is not speculation. The information comes from the CIA. If Taiwan's friends have this to say about them, what about their enemies?
So, against world opinion, Madiba offered them friendship the highest possible ties short of diplomatic recognition.
With that friendship would have come a supportive voice on the world stage, which would have lent credibility to Taipei's desire for greater acceptance.
Instead, they've held a gun to our heads. Be nice to us, or else!
We'll take the "or else". And they can retain their membership in the polecat club which we left in April 1994. When the gunboats of Beijing perform military exercises in Taiwanese waters, there will be one less voice in support of Taipei.
Taiwan, get a life. You need us more than we need you.