South Africa–China Relations of Seven Decades (1949–2019): Review and Reflection

Abstract

This chapter aims to review the foundational relations of political and diplomatic interactions between South Africa and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) between 1949 and 2018, and examine the underlying reasons that help explain the ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ of the bilateral political relations. The chapter is going to develop in two main parts. The first part reviews the political relations between South Africa and the PRC, which can be largely divided into three phases: (quasi-) party-to-party relations between the Communist Party of China, African National Congress (ANC) and National Party (1949–1994); establishment of diplomatic relations between the ANC-led South Africa and PRC (1994–1997); state-to-state relations between the new South Africa and China (1998–2019). This part will also highlight some of the events that signal the advancement and setbacks of the bilateral relations in each of the phases, including for instance, the three ‘split-up’ of party-to-party relations between ANC and CPC, the prolonged process of diplomatic relations building between the new South Africa and China, the establishment of comprehensive strategic partnership, and South Africa’s entry into the BRICS mechanism, among others. The second part explains the advancement and setbacks throughout the different phases of the bilateral political relations by three factors: interests, values and leadership. It argues that the consideration of realist party/national interests explains most of the time the development of bilateral political relations. That said, certain differences at the value level have sometimes complicated the relations through increasing a sense of distance, which is also compounded by the lack of adequate exchange and thus mutual understanding of each other’s strategic interest-pursuits between the two sides. The value factor, however, cannot be overstated given evidence of the tension of balancing ‘interests’ and ‘values’ in South Africa’s diplomatic relations, including that with China. This also links to the final factor of ‘leadership’—the personality and diplomatic thinking of different leaders of South Africa and (to a lesser extent) that of China.