Diplomatic change in Honduras. The Central American country established diplomatic relations with China on Sunday (March 26th) and broke off its ties with Taiwan – which denounces Beijing's "coercion and intimidation" a few hours earlier. Taipei, which is now recognized by only 13 states in the world.

"China and Honduras have just established diplomatic relations," tweeted Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's Foreign Ministry. She accompanied her short message with a photo of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang shaking hands with his Honduran counterpart Enrique Reina, currently in Beijing.

China believes that the island of Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, is one of its provinces, which it has yet to reunite with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war.

Ending 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 Republic of China – which once ruled all of China and now governs only Taiwan.

>> Faced with the Chinese threat, Taiwan holds its breath

Beijing's 'financial incentives' to 'attract' Honduras

In the name of the "One China" principle, Beijing does not allow foreign countries to maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei. However, the island has forged international partnerships through other channels.

In a statement from his ministry issued Saturday night, Enrique Reina said that "on the instruction" of the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, he "communicated to Taiwan the decision to break diplomatic relations".

"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," the source said. "Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory," the ministry said, adding that it pledged from Saturday to no longer have any official relations or contacts with Taiwan.

In response, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Sunday accused Honduras of "deluding itself" about Chinese promises of economic aid. "China has not stopped trying to attract Honduras with financial incentives," he told a news conference in Taipei.

"The severance of diplomatic relations between our country and Honduras is part of a series of coercions and intimidation by China," President Tsai Ing-wen's office said in a statement. "China has been reducing (Taiwan's) place on the international stage for a long time, unilaterally endangering regional peace and stability."

Taiwan still has links with the Vatican, Eswatini, Paraguay...

Chinese authorities have sought to diplomatically isolate Taiwan since 2016 and the election on the island of a president from a pro-independence party. In recent years, Beijing has wrested several Latin American allies from Taipei such as the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.

Among the states that still have diplomatic relations with Taiwan are the Vatican, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Paraguay, Pacific island nations and Haiti.

On 15th March Eduardo Enrique Reina invoked Honduras' "enormous needs" and Taiwan's refusal to increase its aid to justify the desire to establish relations with Beijing.

Recently elected, Xiomara Castro promised during her electoral campaign to recognize the People's Republic of China.

Beijing has been ratcheting up military, economic and diplomatic pressure on Taipei since Tsai Ing-wen, who was re-elected in 2020, came to power. The Taiwanese president comes from a party traditionally in favor of the island's independence, an absolute red line for the Chinese government, which threatens to intervene militarily to prevent such a scenario.

At the same time, however, international support for Taipei has increased. In recent years, several delegations of Western parliamentarians or ministers have visited the island, despite the absence of diplomatic relations between their countries and Taiwan.

With AFP

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