Honduran President wants diplomatic relations with China

• Honduras is moving to sever ties with Taiwan.
• And establish formal diplomatic relations with China.
• China has been trying to isolate Taiwan for 40 years, but has increased its pressure.

Honduras is moving to sever ties with Taiwan and establish formal diplomatic relations with China, President Xiomara Castro declared on Tuesday.

China has spent the majority of the last 40 years trying to isolate the self-governing island by chipping away at its diplomatic friends with offers of economic backing.

China refuses to retain diplomatic connections with any country that recognizes Taiwan.

Only 14 nations, including Honduras, still favor Taipei over Beijing diplomatically.

Yet, this situation appears to be changing.

Castro claimed in a tweet that she had given the foreign minister of Honduras the order “to manage the opening of official relations with the People’s Republic of China.”

Castro, a democratic socialist, won a resounding victory in 2021 after running on a radical platform to overturn years of corrupt and scandal-plagued rule.

She pledged to decrease poverty and relax restrictions on abortion.

Castro stated in her foreign policy platform during her presidential campaign that the nation of Central America aimed to forge diplomatic connections with Beijing.

However, her transition team informed media in January 2022 that “the incoming government will preserve connections with Taiwan.”

Her most recent tweet hints that she has decided to change sides.

Despite never having had control of the island, China’s Communist Party claims Taiwan as its own territory and hasn’t ruled out using force to seize it in the future.

Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, China has increased its diplomatic, military, and economic pressure on Taiwan, even luring some of Taipei’s allies to join its side.

The Solomon Islands in 2019 and Nicaragua in 2021 are two recent examples of countries that have done just that.

With the possible exception of Honduras, Taiwan would only have formal diplomatic relations with 13 countries, most of which are minor states in the Pacific and Central America.

Following Castro’s declaration, Taiwan’s foreign ministry stated that Taipei remained Honduras’ solid ally and cautioned the Latin American country not to “slip into China’s trap.”

The remaining nations that do recognize Taiwan have been eager to remain part of it.

It has, however, also downplayed prior diplomatic setbacks and highlighted the fact that it still retains de facto diplomatic ties with numerous significant Western powers, including the United States.

A flurry of diplomatic support for Taipei has also been sparked by China’s under Xi’s leadership growingly assertive posture to Taiwan, including an increase in the number of visits by Western politicians and officials.

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