Taiwan has withdrawn from the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) to safeguard its sovereignty and dignity after the parliament passed a proposal to replace Taiwan with China as an observer in the bloc, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The six-nation parliament, comprising Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic, met on Monday in Managua, where local lawmakers proposed to replace Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan with the Chinese National People’s Congress as an observer.
The parliament on Monday held a more than three-hour debate over the proposal, but cut it short although many members still wanted to express their opinions, ministry spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) told a news briefing yesterday.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
The proposal was passed with 73 votes in favor, 32 against and 9 abstentions, he said.
Taiwan has been a permanent observer since 1999.
The PARLACEN, ostensibly citing UN Resolution 2758, issued a statement saying that it deemed Taiwan to be a “province of mainland China, which disqualifies it from participating as an independent country.”
The ministry issued a statement condemning Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian regime for misusing the resolution and manipulating the so-called “one China principle” to deprive Taiwan of its rights in the parliament.
Over the past few months, the ministry had explained to parliamentary members Taiwan’s long-term contributions to the region in a bid to solicit their support, Liu said.
The parliament’s decision is proof of the expansion of authoritarianism in Central America, as well as an attack on Taiwan and the global democratic camp, he said, adding: “We are highly worried about the future of Central America.”
Pro-China members on the PARLACEN “ignored Taiwan’s long-term contributions to the parliament and the integration and development of the Central American region,” the ministry said.
The move not only divided the unity of the parliament and undermined democracy and harmony in the region, but also hurt the cooperation and friendship between Taiwan and Central America over the years, it said.
The decision also “highlighted China’s intentions to undermine democracy in Central America and its ambitions to expand its power in the region,” it said.
The ministry reiterated that Taiwan, a sovereign and independent country, and China do not belong to each other.
China continues to suppress Taiwan’s international space and attempts to blatantly interfere in Taiwan’s democratic elections, which the international community would not support and would only “bolster Taiwan’s determination to actively expand its international space,” the ministry said.
Refusing to succumb to China’s intimidations, Taiwan will firmly safeguard the values of freedom and democracy, join hands with allies to protect regional peace and stability, and strive for the international space and status that the nation deserves, it said.
More than 10 countries, 16 Formosa Club cochairs, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and US Senator Bill Cassidy have voiced their support for Taiwan’s participation in PARLACEN, the ministry said.
The replacement “goes against the efforts of PARLACEN to bring democracy and peace to the region. This isn’t the direction that countries friendly to the US should be taking,” Cassidy said on the social media platform X.
Democratic Progressive Party secretary-general Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) yesterday said that expelling Taiwan from the PARLACEN was part of China’s efforts to interfere in Taiwan’s presidential election in January.
Such an unreasonable measure “will not be respected by any country in the world,” he said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said the withdrawal was “a major diplomatic setback.”
The KMT has always opposed China’s suppression of Taiwan’s international space, it said in a press release, urging Beijing “to face the fact that the Republic of China (Taiwan) exists.”
Some voiced concerns about Taiwan’s status in the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABAdditional reporting by CNA EI), which is part of the System of Central American Integration together with the PARLACEN and the Central American Common Market.
A Ministry of Finance official yesterday said that the two bodies are independent, so Taiwan’s membership in the CABEI would not be affected by the withdrawal from the PARLACEN.
Additional reporting by CNA
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS