South Africa's Foreign Policy towards China with special emphasis on Human Rights (1993-2010)

Abstract

In 1993 Nelson Mandela, the then ANC president, announced that South Africa's foreign policy would use human rights as a key pillar and a light that guides its foreign relations. Since then, South Africa committed that all its foreign relations would be based on the advancement of human rights. However, South Africa continued to deepen and strengthen its relations with the Republic of China (RoC) despite its poor track record and low commitment on the issues of human rights. This research focused on South Africa's foreign policy towards China and its human rights record. The researcher's hypothesis is that South Africa's foreign policy is contradictory. This is because the focus has moved from human rights in exchange for self interest in trade. The qualitative approach was followed in this research and considered appropriate for the nature of this study. The fundamental question asked in this study is: Is South Africa still placing human rights as a to p priority in its foreign policy? This study revealed that South African foreign policy towards China has changed and it placed more emphasis on economic national interest rather than human rights. Furthermore, it is because of the latter reason that South Africa has been silent on China despite its low commitment on issues of human rights. If South Africa does not want to become "just another country" in Africa, President Jacob Zuma needs to demonstrate that global leadership entails rising above pressures to be conventional to bloc sentiments. Maintaining its international image will require South Africa to take risks and hold unpopular regional or even global positions.