The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) was baffled yesterday by a statement made by Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa indicating his intention to establish diplomatic ties with China, but remained confident that Taiwan’s relationship with its Central American ally remained strong.
The bilateral relationship with Honduras remains “normal” and “solid” and “will not be affected” even if the country moves to develop economic and trade relations with China, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said.
The statement was posted on the Web site of the Presidential Office of Honduras on Wednesday last week, two days after Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Ko (柯森耀) said that while the ministry was not happy to see an ally establish a trade office in China, it did not oppose allies developing economic ties with Beijing.
However, Lobo’s statement said that he intends to begin diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, not just trade ties.
Ambassador to Honduras Joseph Kuo (郭永樑) met with Honduran Foreign Minister Arturo Corrales Alvarez and an official at Lobo’s office on Friday, the ministry said.
Kuo received “assurances” from the Lobo administration that the country had yet to finalize a plan to set up a trade office in China and that its ties to Taiwan remain solid and will not be affected by Tegucigalpa forging an economic and trade relationship with Beijing, Lin said.
Corrales made it very clear to Kuo that Honduras’ relationship with China will not have repercussions on its relationship with Taiwan, Lin said.
“Those are clear-cut and important assurances. Corrales offered the assurances on behalf of the Honduran government, the president and the vice president,” Lin said.
However, the ministry was unable to explain the discrepancy between Lobo’s statement and the information Kuo received from Corrales and the Honduran presidential office.
The director-general of the ministry’s Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs, Jaime Wu (吳進木), said the ministry expects to learn more about Lobo’s China policy after Kuo meets with Lobo “in a day or two.”
Asked to interpret whether the Honduran president had suggested the possibility of his country seeking diplomatic ties with Taiwan and China, Lin said that was a hypothetical question.
Lin said that Taipei does not consider it acceptable for it’s diplomatic allies to recognize China while maintaining diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
“We don’t think double recognition is acceptable and we don’t think that will happen,” Lin said.
The principle guiding President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “flexible diplomacy” has been that Taiwan and China do not attempt to poach each other’s diplomatic allies, Lin said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods