Taiwan asks Honduras “not to fall into the trap” of restoring diplomatic relations with the Chinese regime

He Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked in honduras not “make the wrong decision” to open official relations with the Chinese regime, after the president of the Central American country, Xiomara Castro, gave this instruction to his foreign minister.

“We ask Honduras to think carefully and not to fall into the trap of China and make the wrong decision to damage the long friendship between Taiwan and Hondurasthe Taiwanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

“I have instructed Foreign Minister Eduardo (Enrique) Reina to manage the opening of official relations with the People’s Republic of China“, underlined the preisdneta of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, in a message on Twitter.

He added that his country will open relations with China “as sample of my determination to conform to the plan of the government and to expand the borders with freedom in the concert of the nations of the world”.

Prior to her inauguration as President of Honduras on January 27, 2022, Castro said it was not on his agenda to open relations with China.

Honduran Foreign Minister and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Fengmet on January 1 in Brasilia as part of the inauguration of the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Two weeks later, the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry expressed “serious concern” about the meeting between Reina and Feng, warning that Beijing makes “false promises”, in order to “reduce the international presence” of Taiwan.

On February 2, Reina announced negotiations with China, but to build a Hydroelectric power plant.

“What we are looking for, in this vision of creating more energy capacity for the country, is for China to fund Patuca II“, said Reina then, denying the versions according to which his country was going to establish relations with the Chinese regime.

Honduras is one of 14 countries with which Taiwan has diplomatic relations, including Guatemala, Vatican City, Haiti, Paraguay, Eswatini, Tuvalu, Nauru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts -and-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Belize, the Marshall Islands and Palau.

The Honduran analyst Raul Pinedahe told the news agency AFP that Castro’s tweet “does not specify what type of relationship” they would be and that if they “are diplomatic, it will generate a rupture with Taiwan and one distancing from the United States”.

“Right now, China-US relations are very tense. From this point of view, it would be a very unfortunate decision” by the Castro government, he added.

Ties between Tegucigalpa and Taipei date back to 1941, when the ROC government – the official name of Taiwan – was still headquartered on the Chinese mainland.

Four Latin American countries –Panama, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua– has severed relations with Taiwan in recent years in favor of the Xi Jinping regime.

Taiwan has been considered a sovereign territory with its own government and political system known as the Republic of China since the end of the civil war between Nationalists and Communists in 1949, but Beijing says it is a rebel province and insists on to return to what he called the common fatherland.

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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