Taiwan ‘part of China’

»> Ramps up pressure for reunification of the breakaway island with the mainland.

- Eric Mthobeli Naki

AIR POWER. China has one of the best-equipped air forces in the world if it wants to retake Taiwan.

(Picture: Supplied)

With backing from the ANC Youth League, the Young Communist League and a prominent academic, China is set to increase the pressure for the reunification of mainland China and Taiwan.

The call to respect the One China principle, with China as the sole representative of the Chinese people, comes on the eve of the G20 Leaders' Summit next month at Nasrec, Johannesburg.

It's also almost a year since the department of international relations and cooperation asked the Taiwan liaison office to move from Pretoria to Johannesburg, where most foreign trade and commercial offices are located.

This emerged during a gathering at the Chinese embassy in Pretoria on Saturday, organised to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Taiwan's restoration to China from Japanese occupation in 1945.

Japan colonised Taiwan for 50 years after it was ceded by a weakened Chinese Qing dynasty.