The union is now official. “China and Honduras have just established diplomatic relations”, tweeted, Sunday, March 26, Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. She accompanies her short message with a photo of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang shaking hands with his Honduran counterpart Eduardo Enrique Reina, currently in Beijing.
Collateral damage of this alliance: Taiwan disappears from the diplomatic radars of Honduras, a reversal initiated several days ago, and confirmed on Saturday by Tegucigalpa, a few hours before Beijing’s announcement.
Edward Enrique Reina, “on the instructions of the President of the Republic [Xiomara Castro]communicated to Taiwan the decision to sever diplomatic relations” between the two territories, said a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This announcement came two days after the start of Mr. Reina’s visit to Beijing, supported by Mr.me Castro, to discuss the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties. On his Twitter account, Xiomara Castro had already announced, on March 14, that he had asked Enrique Reina to establish relations “official” with China.
Beijing considers the island of Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War. . Completed in 1949, the conflict pitted the Communists (who eventually took power in mainland China) against the Nationalist army (forced to retreat to the island). In seven decades, the communist army has never been able to conquer the island, which has remained under the control of the regime that once ruled all of China, but now only rules Taiwan. In the name of its “one China” principle, Beijing does not allow foreign countries to maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei.
Honduras has “illusions about China”
“The government of the Republic of Honduras recognizes the existence of one China in the world, and that the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government to represent all of China”says the joint statement signed by Eduardo Enrique Reina and Qin Gang. “Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory”continues the text, which specifies that Honduras undertakes, from this day forward, to “no longer have any official relationship or contact with Taiwan.
In response, Taipei accused China of pressuring its dwindling allies to join Beijing’s side. “The severance of diplomatic relations between our country and Honduras is part of a series of coercion and intimidation by China”the office of the president, Tsai Ing-wen, said in a press release. “China is reducing the place of [Taïwan] on the international stage for a long time, unilaterally endangering regional peace and stability. »
Mr. Reina had invoked on March 15 “great needs” of Honduras and the refusal of Taiwan to increase its aid to justify the desire to establish relations with Beijing. Recently elected, Xiomara Castro had promised during her election campaign to recognize the People’s Republic of China.
“President Castro and her leadership team have illusions about China and raised the issue of recognition change during the election campaign”Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said. “China has not stopped trying to attract Honduras with financial incentives”he lamented at a press conference.
Strong informal ties with over a hundred countries
Relations between Beijing and Taipei have soured since the election in 2016 to the Taiwanese presidency of Tsai Ing-wen − re-elected in 2020 −, from a party traditionally in favor of a formal declaration of independence for the island, a absolute red line for the Chinese government, which threatens to intervene militarily to prevent such a scenario.
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Since then, Beijing has sought to diplomatically isolate Taiwan, and has wrested diplomatic recognition from Taipei from eight countries, including several Latin American allies such as the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.
On Twitter, the spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry welcomed the decision of Honduras, recalling that with this reversal, there were only thirteen countries left to officially recognize Taiwan, against 182 who recognize China indivisible.
“182 to 13: this is how world opinion is moving. This is where the arc of history bends”is it written.
182 vs 13: This is where global opinion trends. This is where the arc of history bends. https://t.co/orWCqOnIID
Taiwan still has official ties with Belize, Paraguay and Guatemala in Latin America, and Vatican City, among others. Most of its remaining partners are island nations in the Caribbean and South Pacific, as well as Eswatini in southern Africa.
Despite China’s diplomatic isolation campaign, however, Taipei has forged international partnerships through other channels, and maintains strong informal ties with more than a hundred other countries, primarily the United States. Washington has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan but maintains that Taipei is an important partner in the Indo-Pacific.
In recent years, several delegations of Western parliamentarians or ministers have traveled to the island, despite the absence of diplomatic relations between their countries and Taiwan.