Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Nicaragua shortly after the Central American nation on Thursday switched recognition to China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Taiwan recalled staff from its embassy and technical mission after Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s administration announced that it would only recognize China, the ministry said.
“The People’s Republic of China [PRC] is the only legitimate government that represents all China, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory,” the Nicaraguan government said in a statement. “As of today, Nicaragua breaks its diplomatic relations with Taiwan and ceases to have any official contact or relationship.”
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Although Nicaragua’s diplomatic switch leaves Taiwan with just 14 diplomatic allies, it comes as Taipei bolsters ties with multiple unofficial Western friends, including the US.
The ministry said that Taiwan “deeply regrets” that the Nicaraguan government has disregarded the friendship between Taiwanese and Nicaraguans.
“To safeguard national sovereignty and dignity, Taiwan has decided to terminate diplomatic relations with Nicaragua with immediate effect, end all bilateral cooperation projects and aid programs, and recall staff of its embassy and technical mission in Nicaragua,” it said.
The ministry also expressed “strong condemnation” of Beijing, saying China had forced Taiwan’s ally to switch allegiance in an attempt to squeeze Taipei’s international space.
“The people of Taiwan will not cave to China’s pressure,” it said.
The ministry added that Taiwan was not part of the PRC, which has never ruled over Taiwan.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that despite Nicaragua’s decision, Taiwan would not abdicate its responsibilities as a member of the international democratic community.
“The more successful Taiwan’s democracy, and the greater the international support, then the greater the pressure from the authoritarian camp,” Tsai said. “Whether it’s diplomatic pressure or military intimidation, we will not change our determination to adhere to democracy and freedom, to go on the international stage and participate.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said there was no “economic preconditions” to establishing ties, adding that it was “a policy decision, and definitely not a trading of bargaining chips.”
This is the second time that Nicaragua has cut ties with Taiwan under Ortega.
In 1985, Ortega’s government ended 55 years of formal relations with Taiwan and switched recognition to China.
After Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro replaced him as president in 1990, ties with Taiwan resumed, subsequently being maintained by Ortega after he returned to office in 2007.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Education said it would provide necessary support and assistance to the 143 Nicaraguan students living in Taiwan who wish to continue their studies here.
There are no Taiwanese nationals studying in Nicaragua, it added.
Since May 2016, when Tsai came to office, Taiwan has lost eight diplomatic allies: Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Kiribati, Nicaragua, Panama, Sao Tome and Principe, and the Solomon Islands.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS