The diplomatic relations between Nicaragua and Taiwan reached an end after the former’s government announced its recognition of Beijing, saying that “that there is only one China in the world.”
The recent declaration now leaves self-ruled Taiwan with little more than 12 nations worldwide that still maintain their ties with them, like the fellow Central American countries Guatemala and Honduras, CNN reported.
“The People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing all of China and Taiwan is an undoubted part of the Chinese territory,” declared Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada on Thursday as he spoke in a televised coverage from capital city Managua.
“The government of the Republic of Nicaragua breaks diplomatic relations with Taiwan as of today and stopped having any contact or official relationship,” Moncada said.
Since the Chinese civil war ended more than seven decades ago, governance in Taiwan and Mainland China has been done separately. While the former enjoys a multi-party democracy, Mainland China still has its ruling Chinese Communist Party which looks at Taiwan as an attached territory even though they do not have control powers over it.
Any country that embraces Taiwan loses diplomatic relations with Beijing, which had been exerting effort on trying to isolate Taiwan by weakening its diplomatic allies with economic support offers.
As China targets to increase its international influence under its President Xi Jinping, the nations that maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan have dwindled in recent years.
Among the countries that cut ties with Taiwan in 2018 and 2019 were El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Burkina Faso, Kiribati, and the Solomon Islands.
For this year, Nicaragua seemed not to be the lone nation to end diplomatic relations with Taiwan and switch to China as Honduran President-elect Xiomara Castro also hinted at cutting ties with Taipei.
