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Honduras breaks ties with Taiwan and resumes diplomacy with China

Honduras formally established diplomatic ties with China and severed them with Taiwan, ending a decades-old relationship and delivering the latest blow to the self-governing democratic island in its struggle for recognition.

“The government of the Republic of Honduras recognizes the existence of a China in the world and that the government of the People’s Republic of China represents China as a whole,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory and, as of today, the Honduran government has informed Taiwan of the rupture of diplomatic relations,” he added.

China, which sees Taiwan as part of its territory despite never having governed it, refuses to maintain diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes Taiwan.

The Chinese government has spent much of the last 40 years trying to isolate the self-governing island, destroying its diplomatic allies with offers of economic support.

Until now, Honduras was one of 14 countries that still diplomatically recognized Taipei. Shortly after Honduras’ announcement, Taiwan confirmed that ties had been formally severed.

“To safeguard national sovereignty and dignity, we decided to immediately cease diplomatic relations with Honduras and suspend all bilateral cooperation plans,” Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said at a news conference, adding that Taiwan is asking Honduras to close its embassy in Taipei. .

China also confirmed the measure, noting that it had signed a “Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations” with Honduras.

“The two governments (of China and Honduras) have decided to recognize each other and establish relations at the diplomatic level, as of the date of signature of this communiqué”, observes a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

“There is only one China in the world, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legal government representing all of China. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” she added.

Honduran President Xiomara Castro had announced on March 14 that the change was imminent.

Castro, a democratic socialist who won a landslide victory in 2021, had said in her foreign policy manifesto ahead of the vote that the Central American country was trying to forge diplomatic ties with Beijing.

China’s Communist Party has not ruled out using force to one day seize Taiwan. Under leader Xi Jinping, the country has increased military, diplomatic and economic pressure on the island, including enticing Taipei’s allies to switch allegiances.

losing recognition

Taiwan had 56 diplomatic allies when it lost United Nations recognition in 1971. That number dropped to 22 when Taiwan’s current president, Tsai Ing-wen, took office in 2016, and has continued to drop in the years since.

Most of the remaining allies are now small nations in Latin America and the Pacific, with all of the world’s most powerful economies shifting recognition to Beijing decades ago.

China is using its huge market as a tool to weed out remaining support, in an approach many experts call “dollar diplomacy.”

When the Solomon Islands switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 2019, the Pacific country received $8.5 million in development funds from China to do so, according to Reuters.

Paraguay, the largest country among Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic allies, on the other hand, faced restrictions on the export of soy and beef to China.

Its president, Mario Abdo Benítez, openly asked Taiwan to invest US$1 billion in his country last year so that it could continue to resist “enormous” pressure to abandon the alliance.

“The rise of China has become a major challenge for our diplomacy,” he recently told the CNN Johnny Chiang, parliamentarian from Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang party and member of parliament’s National and Foreign Defense Committee.

He said the island is increasingly choosing not to match China’s “dollar diplomacy” – preferring instead to emphasize shared values ​​such as democracy.

Effects of loss of support

Analysts differ on what significance they attach to Taiwan’s loss of allies. Some say official relationships are valuable, but only up to a point.

Having official allies helps give Taiwan a voice in the international community. Last October, for example, 10 of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies signed a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to criticize the UN’s exclusion of Taiwan.

Still, most of its remaining allies are relatively small and have limited influence on the world stage.

“They have a voice in the UN General Assembly, but their numbers are insufficient to influence the rest, who often vote for Beijing,” said J. Michael Cole, senior adviser to the Taipei-based International Republican Institute.

But others say Taiwan’s global influence is growing despite the loss of allies.

For example, Taiwan’s unofficial relationship with the United States – which withdrew Taipei’s diplomatic recognition in 1979 – appears to many to be as strong as it has been for decades.

The lack of diplomatic ties did not deter then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi from making a controversial visit to the island in August – to which China responded angrily, holding unprecedented military exercises and firing missiles at the island.

That also hasn’t dissuaded current Speaker of the US House Kevin McCarthy from planning a meeting with Tsai in early April, when she is due to transit the United States en route to Central America, on another trip likely to anger China.

Experts point out that the United States remains the main guarantor of the island’s security in the face of a possible invasion by China, and that the United States supplies arms to Taiwan every year – both without an “official” diplomatic relationship.

They also point out that the G7 nations (US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and UK) were quick to express concerns after military exercises following Pelosi’s visit to China.

Taiwan’s role as a leading global supplier of semiconductor chips – needed to power everything from laptops to advanced weapons – also makes it an important trading partner for many Western democracies.

As Lev Nachman, assistant professor of politics at National Chengchi University, told CNN recently: “Taiwan’s diplomatic allies offer significant support to Taiwan, such as allowing official visits to take place. But we often ask, if one day Taiwan has no formal diplomatic allies, what would really change? And the answer is not much.”

Source: CNN Brasil

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