Taiwan says China wants to wrest Paraguay as an ally from its grasp

Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yui said today that China is doing everything possible to “snatch” Paraguay from Taiwan ahead of the general elections held in the South American country on April 30.

Yui made these statements during a parliamentary hearing.

He also assured that the island’s Foreign Ministry closely follows all Paraguayan political parties to maintain relations with Asuncion, its only ally in the southern cone.

“It is a fact that China has been courting candidates of all parties”, said the vice minister, quoted by the official CNA agency.

The official insisted that no matter who wins the election, Taiwan will continue working with the newly elected government.

The preservation, or not, of diplomatic relations with the self-governed island – in force since 1957 – is one of the topics of debate in the Paraguayan electoral campaign, which the opposition has valued as “an important option” a possible alliance with China.

Last March 26, Honduras broke its bilateral ties with Taiwan to establish them with China, which reduced to 13 the number of countries with which Taipei maintains official diplomatic relations.

Tegucigalpa’s decision also made Honduras the ninth country – and fifth Latin American – since 2016 to cut ties with the island to ally with China, joining Panama, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua, among others.

To establish official diplomatic relations, China demands severing all ties with Taiwan, a territory that the Asian giant claims by considering it a rebel province since, in 1949, the Kuomintang nationalists retreated to the island after losing the civil war against the communist army.

With information from EFE