Taiwan would not sever ties with El Salvador if the Central American country established relations with China, Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) said yesterday in response to a lawmaker’s question.
Salvadoran president-elect Mauricio Funes has repeatedly promised to switch ties to Beijing upon taking office in June.
“Will Taiwan break ties with El Salvador if it establishes ties with China?” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) asked Ou at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee.
“No,” Ou replied resolutely and without elaborating.
When asked by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) about the state of ties with El Salvador, Ou said: “According to my assessment, El Salvador will not terminate ties with Taiwan. I am confident about that.”
Ministry spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) later told reporters that ties with El Salvador were strong and Taiwan would strive to deepen the allegiance.
Taiwan does not wish to see El Salvador and China become diplomatic allies, he said, but would not be opposed to their developing closer trade relations.
Later yesterday, Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the government would not recognize diplomatic ties between the nation’s allies and China.
“We would not oppose any substantial relationship between our allies and China, but of course we would not acknowledge mutual acceptance,” he said.
Wang also said Taiwan would not try to establish ties with China’s allies.
Agence France-Presse reported that Funes, who heads the Frente Farabundo Marti para Liberacion Nacional (FMLN), said he would discuss San Salvador’s links with Beijing with Taiwan’s envoy as well as with Chinese officials in San Salvador. The report said Funes insisted the “type of relation” his government has with Taiwan and Beijing would “be dealt with later on” in his administration.
Funes was quoted as saying he was “interested in closer” trade ties with China, given its immense size.
“We are very aware of [Funes’] leftist stance and we have established communication with him to explain the importance of the bilateral link,” Ou said at the legislature.
But Tsai expressed skepticism, saying El Salvador may be following Paraguay’s example by fishing for money from Taiwan in exchange for continued ties.
Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, also a staunch leftist, indicated repeatedly during his campaign last year that he was open to ties with China.
During his Latin American tour earlier this month, Ou said Taiwan had agreed in principle to allow Paraguay to defer repayment of US$400 million in loans.
“There are talks in diplomatic circles that Taiwan’s so-called diplomatic truce and flexible diplomacy have only made it an easier target for extortion from our remaining 23 allies,” Tsai said, demanding Ou promise to step down if Taiwan lost any more allies.
Ou said the efficacy of diplomatic efforts should not be determined by an isolated event.
“We should not only focus on the number of our allies,” but also on the progress we make in relations with non-allies, he said.
Ou declined to say whether President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would attend Funes’ inauguration on June 1, but said he was certain El Salvador, like other allies in the past, would extend an invitation.
When contacted for comment, Ambassador to El Salvador Francisco Santana yesterday declined to be interviewed.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
RSS