Taipei, July 29 (CNA) Taiwan will lodge a formal protest with the South African government to correct the designation of Taiwan as “Taiwan, China” in South Africa’s Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Tuesday.
Though Taiwanese travelers are not yet eligible to use the ETA system, CNA recently noticed that the drop-down menu for the “Passport country of issue” field on the system’s website includes Taiwan but incorrectly lists it as “Taiwan, China.”
Taiwan’s government has often railed against drop-down menus that use “Taiwan, China,” arguing that it represents a downgrade of Taiwan’s status and implies incorrectly that Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China.
South Africa introduced the ETA system in October 2025 as part of the Department of Home Affairs’ phased digital transformation.
At present, the system is available only to travelers from China, India, Indonesia and Mexico entering through selected South African airports, but South Africa plans to expand the system to additional tourists and business travelers in the future.
Responding to CNA’s inquiry, MOFA said Taiwanese citizens traveling to South Africa must still apply for a physical visa through the Liaison Office of South Africa in Taiwan, the country’s de facto embassy in Taipei.
Nevertheless, MOFA said it has instructed Taiwan’s representative office in Pretoria to submit a formal protest to the South African government and request that the designation be corrected.
Taiwan had a similar dispute with South Korea last year when Seoul’s online electronic arrival card system in early 2025 initially listed Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in drop-down menus for the “place of departure” and “next destination” fields.
South Korea later removed the “last point of departure” and “next destination” fields from the system to resolve the naming dispute.
Taiwan may have a difficult time getting a positive response this time as its relations with South Africa remain frayed after Pretoria tried in late 2024 to reclassify Taipei’s office there as a “trade office” and move it to Johannesburg, the country’s commercial capital,
The office is still in Pretoria and functioning normally, but South Africa renamed it the Taipei Commercial Office on the website of its Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), and no talks have been held to resolve the issue.
(By Yang Yao-ju and Joseph Yeh)
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