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.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying
RSS