Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Friday blamed Beijing for former ally Nicaragua’s decision to switch diplomatic recognition to China earlier in the day.
Responding to the severing of ties, President Tsai Ing-wen (???) said Taiwan would not abdicate its responsibilities as a member of the international democratic community, adding that Nicaragua’s decision involved complex international politics and the cross-strait situation.
“I want to tell our people that the more successful Taiwan’s democracy and stronger the support for Taiwan from the international community, the larger pressure from the authoritarian rule camp comes.”
Regardless of diplomatic pressure or military threats, Tsai said Taiwan would not shrink from its duty to “uphold democracy and freedom while walking toward the world.”
In a statement, MOFA expressed its “strong condemnation” of Beijing, saying China had forced Taiwan’s ally to switch allegiance in an attempt to squeeze Taipei’s international space.
It said “the people of Taiwan will not cave to China’s pressure.”
MOFA went on to stress they held on to the position that Taiwan and China were separate entities, saying that Taiwan was not part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and that the PRC had never ruled the island of Taiwan.
Speaking with local media in New Taipei, Premier Su Tseng-chang (???) made similar remarks, saying that “China has resorted to all forms of maneuvers to isolate Taiwan” from the international community.
Su added that there were more and more democratic and like-minded countries that had expressed support for Taiwan.
However, the premier did not respond to media questions as to whether Taiwan’s government had been made aware of the diplomatic switch — which was announced early Friday morning (Taipei time) — ahead of the event.
Nicaraguan officials were already present in China at the time, with Chinese state media saying Friday that talks would take place later in the day in Tianjin between government representatives from both countries.
Nicaragua’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared its severance of diplomatic ties with Taiwan in a statement issued in the early hours of Friday morning, saying it would “cease to have any contact or official relationship” with Taipei.
In response, MOFA later said it would recall its embassy staff and technical mission from the Central American nation.
The latest loss brings the number of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies down to 14.
Since Tsai came into office in 2016, Taiwan has lost eight diplomatic allies: Burkina Faso, Panama, São Tomé and Príncipe, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and now Nicaragua.
This is the second time that Nicaragua has cut ties with Taiwan under its President José Daniel Ortega Saavedra.
During Ortega’s first stint in power in 1985, his government ended 55 years of formal relations with Taiwan and switched recognition to China.
However, after Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro replaced Ortega as president in 1990, ties with Taiwan were resumed, subsequently being maintained by Ortega after he returned to office in 2007.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education (MOE) said Friday that it would provide necessary support and assistance to the 143 Nicaraguan students currently living in Taiwan who wished to continue their studies here.
The MOE added that there were no Taiwanese nationals currently studying in Nicaragua.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel