Honduras has established diplomatic relations with China and broke them with Taiwan, severing a decades-long alliance and hurting the self-ruled island democracy's recognition efforts.
“The government of the Republic of Honduras recognises the existence of one China in the world and that the government of the People's Republic of China represents China as a whole,”
its foreign affairs ministry announced Saturday, local time. “Taiwan is an intrinsic component of Chinese territory,” it stated.
China, which claims Taiwan as its own despite never ruling it, opposes diplomatic relations with Taiwan-recognizing nations.
It has spent 40 years offering economic aid to diplomatic friends to isolate the self-ruled island democracy. Honduras was one of 14 countries still internationally recognising Taipei over Beijing.
Immediately after the statement by Honduras, Taiwan acknowledged that connections had been formally terminated.At a news conference,
Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said that Taiwan was urging Honduras to close its embassy in Taipei to protect national sovereignty and dignity.
Tsai Ing-wen called Honduras' decision "extremely unfortunate" in a Sunday video message.
“Suppression and threats will not change the fact that the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China are not subordinate to one other,” Tsai added.