The Chinese diaspora in South Africa during the crisis and dismantling of the apartheid system (1980–1994)

This article examines the transformation of the Chinese diaspora in the Republic of South Africa during the crisis and dismantling of the apartheid system in 1980–1994. The study draws on resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council, South African legal acts, and Taiwanese press materials. The aim of the study is to identify the main changes in the position of the Chinese community amid the political and legal transformation of the South African state. The study demonstrates that the crisis of apartheid was accompanied by a gradual relaxation of restrictions imposed on the Chinese population and the subsequent dismantling of the legal foundations of racial classification, while its political position remained uncertain until the early 1990s. At the same time, changes in legal status coincided with the intensification of Taiwanese migration, which contributed to significant population growth and altered the socio-economic structure of the diaspora. The article demonstrates that the emergence of a substantial group of Taiwanese migrants became one of the key factors behind the internal differentiation of the Chinese community, creating differences between the established Chinese diaspora and new migrants in terms of economic interests, patterns of adaptation, and attitudes toward South African society. The study also establishes that changes in South Africa’s relations with the Republic of China and the gradual development of contacts with the People’s Republic of China created new international conditions for the diaspora. It is concluded that by 1994 the Chinese community had entered fundamentally new political, legal, and social conditions, marking the transition to a new stage of its development.