Foreign Ministers of Honduras and China Eduardo Enrique Reina (left) Qin Gang shake hands after establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries during a ceremony March 26, 2023 in Beijing. GREG BAKER/AFP
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 brief message with a photo of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang shaking hands with his Honduran counterpart Eduardo Enrique Reina, who is currently in Beijing.
Collateral damage from this alliance: Taiwan disappears from Honduras’ diplomatic radar, a reversal initiated a few days ago and confirmed by Tegucigalpa on Saturday, just hours before Beijing’s announcement.
Eduardo Enrique Reina, “by order of the President of the Republic [Xiomara Castro], Taiwan announced the decision to sever diplomatic ties between the two regions,” the foreign ministry said in a press release. This announcement came two days after the start of Mr. Reina’s visit to Beijing, supported by Ms. Castro, to discuss the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations. On March 14, Xiomara Castro announced on his Twitter account that he had asked Enrique Reina to establish “official” relations with China.
Beijing considers the island of Taiwan, home to 23 million people, to be one of its provinces that it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of China’s civil war. The conflict, concluded in 1949, pitted the communists (who eventually took power in mainland China) against the nationalist army (which was forced to retreat to the island). In seven decades, the communist army has never been able to capture the island, which has remained under the control of the regime that once ruled all of China but now rules only Taiwan. In the name of its “One China” principle, Beijing has banned foreign countries from having diplomatic relations with Taipei.
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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 representing all of China,” said the joint statement signed by Eduardo Enrique Reina and Qin Gang. “Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory,” the text continues, specifying that Honduras undertakes to have “no more official relations or contacts” with Taiwan from this day forward.
In response, Taipei accused China of pressuring its dwindling allies to side with Beijing. “The disruption of diplomatic ties between our country and Honduras is part of a series of coercion and intimidation by China,” President Tsai Ing-wen’s office said in a statement. “China is reducing the space of [Taïwan] on the international stage for a long time and unilaterally endanger peace and stability in the region. »
Mr Reina on March 15 had cited Honduras’ “huge needs” and Taiwan’s refusal to increase its aid to justify a desire to establish ties with Beijing. The newly elected Xiomara Castro had promised during the election campaign to recognize the People’s Republic of China.
“President Castro and her leadership team harbor illusions about China and have raised the issue of recognition change during the election campaign,” said Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. “We haven’t stopped attracting Honduras with financial incentives,” he lamented during a press conference.
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Strong informal relationships with over a hundred countries
Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated since Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, re-elected in 2020, was elected in 2016 by a party that has traditionally favored a formal declaration of independence for the island, an absolute red line for the Chinese government that is looming to intervene militarily to prevent such a scenario.
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Since then, Beijing has attempted to diplomatically isolate Taiwan and wrested diplomatic recognition from Taipei from eight countries, including several Latin American allies such as the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.
On Twitter, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman welcomed Honduras’ decision, recalling that with this reversal, only thirteen countries remain to officially recognize Taiwan, versus 182 that recognize China as indivisible.
“182 to 13: This is how the world public moves. Here the arc of history bends,” it is written.
182 vs. 13: This is where global opinion trends come into play. Here the arc of history bends. https://t.co/orWCqOnIID
Taiwan still maintains 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, and Eswatini in southern Africa.
However, despite China’s diplomatic campaign of isolation, Taipei has forged international partnerships through other channels and maintains strong informal ties with more than a hundred other countries, mainly the United States. Washington has no diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but claims Taipei is a key partner in the Indo-Pacific.
In recent years, despite the lack of diplomatic ties between their countries and Taiwan, several delegations of Western parliamentarians or ministers have traveled to the island.