() — Honduras formally established diplomatic ties with China and disassociated itself from taiwanending a decades-long relationship and dealing a blow to the autonomous island democracy in its fight for recognition.
“The government of the Republic of Honduras recognizes the existence of only one China in the world and that the government of the People’s Republic of China represents China as a whole,” its Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday local time.
“Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory and as of today, the Honduran government informed Taiwan of the severance of diplomatic relations,” he added.
China, which views Taiwan as part of its territory despite never having ruled it, refuses to maintain diplomatic ties with any country that recognizes Taiwan.
It has spent much of the last 40 years trying to isolate the self-governing island democracy by undermining its diplomatic allies with offers of economic support.
Honduras had so far been one of the 14 countries that still diplomatically recognized Taipei over Beijing.
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu speaks during a news conference in Taipei on March 26, 2023. Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
Shortly after the Honduran announcement, Taiwan confirmed that ties had been formally severed.
“In order to safeguard national sovereignty and dignity, we have decided to immediately cease diplomatic relations with Honduras and suspend all bilateral cooperation plans,” Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said at a press conference, adding that Taiwan requested Honduras to close its embassy in Taipei.
In a video address on Sunday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called Honduras’s decision “very regrettable.”
“Repression and threats will not change the fact that the ROC (Taiwan) and the PRC are not subservient to each other,” Tsai said.
“Nor will they undermine the Taiwanese people’s insistence on freedom and democracy, and willingness to be part of the global community,” he continued, adding that Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to promote peace.
China also confirmed the move, saying it signed a “Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations” with Honduras on Sunday.
“The two governments (of China and Honduras) have decided to recognize each other and establish diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level, from the date of signing this statement,” read a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“There is only one China in the world and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legal government that represents all of China. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” she added.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced on March 14 that change was imminent.
Castro, a democratic socialist who won a landslide victory in 2021, indicated in her foreign policy manifesto before being voted in that the Central American country was seeking to establish diplomatic ties with Beijing.
The Chinese Communist Party has not ruled out using force to one day seize Taiwan. Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, China increased military, diplomatic and economic pressure on the island, including prompting Taipei’s allies to switch allegiances.
loss of recognition
Taiwan had 56 diplomatic allies when it lost United Nations recognition in 1971. That number had dwindled to just 22 when Tsai took office in 2016 and has continued to decline in the years since.
Most of Taiwan’s remaining allies are now small nations in Latin America and the Pacific, and all of the world’s most powerful economies switched recognition to Beijing decades ago.
Beijing uses China’s huge market to persuade and eliminate the remaining countries, in an approach many experts call “dollar diplomacy.”
When Solomon Islands switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 2019, China offered the Pacific country $8.5 million in development funds to do so, according to Reuters.
Paraguay, the largest country among Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic allies, on the other hand, faces restrictions on the export of soybeans and beef to China. Its president, Mario Abdo Benítez, openly called on Taiwan to invest US$1 billion in his country last year to continue resisting the “enormous” pressure it is under to leave the alliance.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro at the Presidential House in Tegucigalpa on November 24, 2022. Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
“The rise of China has become a very big challenge for our diplomacy,” Johnny Chiang, a lawmaker from Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang party and a member of the parliament’s Foreign and Domestic Defense Committee, recently told .
He said Taiwan increasingly chooses not to match China’s “dollar diplomacy,” preferring instead to stress shared values such as democracy.
How significant is this?
Analysts differ on how much importance 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 jointly signed a letter to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres criticizing the UN’s exclusion of Taiwan.
Despite that, most of its remaining allies are relatively small and have limited influence on the world stage.
“They provide a voice in the UN General Assembly, but their numbers are insufficient to sway the rest, who often vote for Beijing,” said J. Michael Cole, senior adviser at the Taipei-based International Republican Institute. .
Still others point out that Taiwan’s global influence is growing despite the loss of allies.
For example, Taiwan’s unofficial relationship with the United States, which withdrew diplomatic recognition from Taipei in 1979, appears to be as strong as it has been in decades.
The lack of diplomatic ties did not stop then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from making a controversial visit to Taipei in August, a visit to which China responded angrily by conducting unprecedented military exercises and firing missiles at the island. .
Nor has it deterred current US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from planning to meet with Tsai in early April when she plans to transit the United States en route to Central America on another trip that is expected to take Chinese repercussions.
The flags of Taiwan and Honduras outside the Taiwanese Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, March 15, 2023. Fredy Rodriguez/Reuters/FILE
Experts point out that the United States remains the main guarantor of the island’s security against a possible invasion by China and that the United States supplies arms to Taiwan every year, without an “official” diplomatic relationship.
They also note that the G7 nations (the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK) were quick to voice their concerns after China’s post-Pelosi military exercises.
Taiwan’s role as a world leader in supplying semiconductor chips, which are needed to power everything from laptop computers to advanced weapons, also makes it an important trading partner for many Western democracies.
Lev Nachman, an assistant professor of politics at National Chengchi University, put it this way in a dialogue with recently: “Taiwan’s diplomatic allies offer significant support to Taiwan, such as allowing official visits to take place. But we often ask, if Taiwan one day doesn’t have formal diplomatic allies, what would it really change? And the answer is not so much.
