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Beijing sets up formal ties with Honduras in yet another diplomatic blow for Taiwan
- Switch in official recognition comes a week after Honduran President Xiomara Castro tweeted about imminent change
- Taipei left with just 13 diplomatic allies after ninth nation severs ties since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016
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Beijing announced formal ties with Honduras on Sunday – hours after the Central American nation officially cut decades-old relations with Taiwan – notching up yet another diplomatic victory amid rising cross-strait tensions.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Honduran counterpart Eduardo Enrique Reina signed a joint communique on Sunday to establish formal ties, state media reported.
“As an important nation in Central America, the government of Honduras has chosen to stand with 181 countries in the world, acknowledging and committing to the one-China principle, cutting the so-called ‘diplomatic relations’ with Taiwan,” Chinese state news agency Xinhua cited a foreign ministry spokesman as saying.
China was willing to strengthen all-round friendly cooperation with Honduras, the statement added.
The severing of ties with Taipei came a week after Honduran President Xiomara Castro said on Twitter that she had “instructed Foreign Minister Eduardo Reina to manage the opening of official relations with the People’s Republic of China”.
A Honduran delegation headed by Reina arrived in Beijing on Thursday to negotiate the signing of a formal communique on the establishment of diplomatic relations.
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