Researcher: US Taiwan policy is “do as I say, not as I do”.
11:29•Updated 11:30
The intense diplomatic war between China and Taiwan is also being fought in Latin America. The disproportion between a superpower with a population of 1.4 billion and an island with 24 million inhabitants can be seen in the fact that more and more countries, also on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean, have abandoned Taiwan and become China’s ally or at least a supporter.
In March, Honduras severed relations with Taiwan. Loyalties will be weighed next in Paraguay, which will hold its presidential election in April. There the opposition candidate Efrain Alegre has vowed to reassess relations with Taiwan if he wins.
In Latin America, for example, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua have previously become China’s backers.
– We are experiencing a geopolitical reorganization of the world. With that, China also competes for the support of Latin America, estimates the political analyst Zoyla Madridwho recently retired from the National University of Honduras.
According to him, Honduras’ decision was a blow to the United States.
– The United States has seven military bases in Honduras, and until now Washington has always trusted Honduras geopolitically and militarily, Madrid formulates.
The United States does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but the two countries have a “strong informal relationship,” according to the US State Department. The United States is its most important ally and biggest arms supplier.
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China considers Taiwan part of its territory, which it has said it will one day annex, by force if necessary. In accordance with its One China policy, it does not allow countries to recognize both China and Taiwan.
After the change of line in Honduras, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington has offered “its support to the people of Taiwan” but at the same time supported the one-China policy.
Honduran sociologist Pablo Carias assesses the news agency AFP that Washington’s position is “do as I say, not as I do”.
– The United States recommends that we do not establish relations with China, and yet they themselves have such relations.
Paraguay’s former foreign minister Eladio Loizagan thinks it seems unlikely that his country will shift its support to Beijing “although it cannot be ignored that there would be very high political pressure”.
STT-AFP