After leaving Taiwan, Honduras finally took China's hand

International Desk: Finally, the Central American country of Honduras has drawn the end of decades of relations with Taiwan. At the same time, leaving Taiwan, the country took hold of China. The Central American country said it only recognizes China. Taiwan's foreign minister, on the other hand, accused Honduras of demanding too much money and being lured by Beijing's words. Reuters reported this information in a report on Friday (March 26). The report said that the end of Honduras' long relationship with Taiwan was expected. Because the Honduran foreign minister visited China last week to start relations with the Asian superpower. In addition, Honduran President Xiomara Castro recently said that his government will open relations with Beijing.

According to Reuters, in a brief statement issued on Saturday night, Honduras announced the severance of relations with Taiwan. In a statement, the Honduran foreign ministry said it recognizes the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate government representing the whole of China and that Taiwan is an "inalienable part of Chinese territory". China does not allow countries that have diplomatic relations with Beijing to have formal relations with Taiwan. Because China claims this democratically ruled island as its own territory. China claims that democratically governed Taiwan is its own territory and therefore has no right to have any state-to-state relations with Taiwan.

However, this claim of Beijing is strongly rejected by Taipei. According to media reports, the President of the Central American country of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, during his election campaign promised to sever ties with Taiwan and officially begin relations with China. However, after taking office in January 2022, he changed his position and said that he hoped to maintain relations with Taiwan. But in the middle of this month, President Xiomara Castro changed his position and announced the start of relations with China by pushing Taiwan away. And then Honduras made the official announcement on Saturday night. On the other hand, Taiwan responded on Sunday immediately after the announcement of Honduras. Speaking in Taipei today, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said the Castro government, which took office early last year, "always had illusions" about China and China's "temptation" has never stopped.

Wu said, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy are taking the relevant information and carefully examining it." However, the Castro government has asked us for huge economic assistance of billions of dollars and they have compared the price between the aid programs provided by Taiwan and China. Meanwhile, China has not yet commented on the announcement of Honduras breaking ties with Taiwan. However, China said last week that it is ready to establish relations with Honduras. On the other hand, this move by Honduras further reduced the number of Taiwan's allies around the world. Reuters says Taiwan now has formal diplomatic relations with only 13 countries. Most of which are poor and developing countries in Central America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean.

Notably, before that, in December 2021, Nicaragua severed long-standing ties with Taiwan. At that time the country switched allegiance to China and declared that 'Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory'. However, the US State Department at the time encouraged countries to maintain their relations with Taiwan. The US State Department said that Nicaragua's decision does not reflect the will of the people because the country's government was not freely elected. In addition, in a report in mid-March, Reuters reported that Taiwan may lose Latin American ally Paraguay by the end of April this year. At that time, there is going to be a presidential election in Paraguay, and if the opposition party wins that election, they can build relations with China. The opposition presidential candidate of this Latin American country, Efrain Alegre, said that Paraguay will cut ties with Taiwan and open relations with China. Through this, he hopes to increase exports of economically important soy and beef.