Taiwan used its National Day reception in Johannesburg to push closer trade and tech ties with South Africa, a positive signal for business links despite strained official relations.

• Taiwan's envoy rebranded "TW" as "Technology and Wonder," pitching chips and AI as the basis for a new partnership.
• The hard sell: over 90% of the world's most advanced chips and AI servers come from Taiwan, making peace in the Taiwan Strait a global economic issue.
• Taiwan also argued UN Resolution 2758 only moved China's UN seat and says nothing about Taiwan, so it should not be locked out of the UN system.
• Aid is the softer lever — hundreds of wheelchairs and 400 tons of rice donated this year, plus training in smart farming, digital government, and health care.
• Asus and HTC gear was on display, with Asus now employing more than 50 people locally after a decade in South Africa.

Outlook: Expect Taiwan to keep using tech, tourism, and aid to build local-government and business ties in South Africa while Pretoria's formal relationship with Beijing limits anything official.