El Salvador drops Taiwan for China

BBN Staff: Taiwan, the small island nation whose president, Dr. Tsai Ing-Wen, made a diplomatic visit to Belize last week; has lost yet another ally to China, this time being El Salvador.

Taiwan has seen its already small list of allies, dwindle over the past year, as China has increased efforts to sway Taiwan’s remaining allies away from small country, which it claims as its own. Following El Salvador’s announcement that it has switched allegiances, Taiwan vowed, on Tuesday, to fight China’s “increasingly out of control” behavior.

El Salvador is now the third country this year alone to discontinue diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of establishing diplomatic ties with mainland China. Taiwan’s list of allies is now down to just 17 countries, many of which are small, developing nations, including Belize.

Ing-Wen said Taiwan would not bow to pressure from China. It called El Salvador’s recent decision, proof that China was trying to squeeze the island. China has also conducted regular bomber patrols around Taiwan, according to Reuters.

“We will turn to countries with similar values to fight together against China’s increasingly out-of-control international behavior,” President Tsai said. Taiwan has accused China of using ‘dollar-diplomacy’ to persuade countries to abandon diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The country says it is not willing to compete with China in such ‘dollar-diplomacy’.

According to Taiwan’s Foreign Minister, Joseph Wu, El Salvador had been continuously asking for “massive funding support” since last year for a port development project, however, Taiwan had been unable to assist with the “unsuitable project” after assessment.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory, however, Taiwan maintains it is a sovereign and democratic nation.

 

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