The South African government has given Taiwan a deadline of the end of March to relocate the island's de facto embassy outside of the capital city Pretoria, the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said, blaming Chinese pressure for the move.

Taiwan has expressed “grave concerns” about growing pressure from South Africa to downgrade and relocate its de facto embassy from Pretoria, the country’s administrative capital. The island’s foreign ministry confirmed on Monday that the South African government renewed a demand in late January asking the island to move its representative office out of Pretoria by the end of March.

Taiwan on Monday banned government departments from using Chinese startup DeepSeek's artificial intelligence (AI) service as it was a security risk, toughening language from last week which said it should not be used.

Taiwan strengthens AI restrictions, fully banning DeepSeek over data security fears; global regulators also scrutinizing the company