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Johannesburg - Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe left for
China on Monday on a trip Beijing may use to influence Pretoria to reject a
visa application by the Dalai Lama.
South Africa has not made a decision yet to allow a visit by
the Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Laureate, the Foreign Ministry
said. The Dalai Lama was invited by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, another Peace
Prize recipient, to attend his 80th birthday celebration in early October.
The Dalai Lama, once embraced as a beacon of peace in South
Africa when apartheid ended, has become a diplomatic headache for the country
as its economic fortunes are increasingly linked to China, which had pushed
Pretoria to reject a previous visa application.
Motlanthe's three-day visit is aimed at bolstering economic
ties. He was invited by Vice-President Xi Jingping, widely seen as China's
future leader.
In mid-July Xi, in his first major speech on Tibet, vowed to
crack down on separatist forces he said were led by the Dalai Lama, suggesting
he will not ease Beijing's hardline stance towards the region and angering many
Tibetan self-advocacy groups.
"It is a concern not to upset the Chinese," said
Thomas Wheeler, a diplomacy specialist at the South African Institute of
International Affairs.
South Africa rejected the Dalai Lama's last application when
Tutu and former presidents Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk invited him to a 2010
peace conference.
“When you are dealing with the reality of politics, there
are other considerations than these high principles. That has been a let-down
for everybody who expected South Africa to be different," Wheeler said.
South Africa exports about $5.5bn a year in minerals to
China, and has increasingly been a destination for Chinese foreign direct
investment.
China last year invited South Africa to join the Bric
(Brazil, Russia, India and China) grouping, a diplomatic coup for President
Jacob Zuma. It was also seen by analysts as a Chinese stamp of approval for the
country's role as a stepping stone to the African continent.
China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since Communist troops marched in 1950. It says its rule has brought much-needed development to a poor and backward region.
