One less in the already meager list.
The Government of Honduras broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan on Saturday and immediately afterwards, this Sunday, established them with the People's Republic of China in an official act in which the Foreign Minister of the Central American country, Eduardo Reina, and his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, have signed a joint statement.
Tegucigalpa "recognizes the existence of only one China in the world," and Beijing as its only legitimate government, the text says.
"Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory," he adds.
The turn is nothing new but the confirmation of an inexorable diplomatic trajectory.
The self-governing island, which Beijing claims as an inalienable part of its territory and to which the United States gives military support, has lost nine diplomatic allies since 2016, when incumbent President Tsai ing-Wen came to power at the head of the Democratic Progressive Party. sovereignist.
Taipei has been losing formal allies since it ceded its seat at the United Nations to Beijing in 1971.
At this moment only 13 States, and none of any weight, maintain official ties with this enclave that has also become, over the decades, one of the points of friction in the geopolitical theater, the epicenter of the clash between Washington and Beijing in the Asian region. Peaceful.
The vast majority of countries have taken the same step —Spain did just now 50 years ago—, a necessary condition to be able to maintain official relations with communist China.
Meanwhile, capitals often maintain unofficial ties with Taipei through trade offices.
The price of the break: 410 million euros, according to Taiwan
As in many breakups, money has played a key role, as criticized by the Taiwanese government.
The price of the rupture would be 442 million dollars (about 410 million euros), according to the island's Foreign Minister, Joseph Wu, who assured this Sunday that he had received a letter from his Honduran counterpart demanding that amount to build a hydroelectric dam, a hospital and assume part of the national debt of the Latin American country.
This type of practice "is like offering bribes", Wu has censured in an appearance collected by the official Taiwanese agency CNA.
"We will not get involved in a senseless competition of dollar diplomacy," stressed the president, Tsai Ing-wen, through a statement in which she "deeply" regretted the break.
"In recent years, China has persistently used all means to suppress Taiwan's international involvement, intensify its military intimidation against Taiwan, and disrupt regional peace and stability," she added.
In the communiqué signed between China and Honduras, Beijing "thanks" its new partner for the change of position.
The text indicates how both Executives agree to establish "friendly" relations on the basis of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in respective internal affairs, equality, mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence.
During the previous mandate in Taiwan, under the leadership of President Ma Ying-jeou (2008-2016), of the nationalist Kuomingtan party, closest to Beijing, there was a period of rapprochement between China and the island, which came to crystallize in a Historic meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The now former president Ma is scheduled to land in China this week, in a trip that marks the first time that a Taiwanese president or former president has landed in the People's Republic since 1949. It was then that the nationalist camp, led by Chiang Kai-shek, lost the Chinese civil war against Mao Zedong's communists, and took refuge on the island of Taiwan.
There they established a government they called the Republic of China.
Meanwhile, the current president plans to travel, also this week, to the United States in the way that the leaders of the enclave usually do: in transit to one of the few Latin American partners that continue to officially recognize Taiwan.
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