Asia Times
Date: August 25, 2018
By Xuan Loc Doan

On Tuesday – the day El Salvador formally switched its allegiance from Taiwan to China – the Chinese state-run Global Times published an editorial, headlined: “After El Salvador, which country will be next to abandon Taiwan?” and a cartoon with the caption: “Taiwan down to 17 ‘allies’ and counting.”

All of this neatly summarizes the triumphalist mood in (the People’s Republic of China and in some respects, such a reaction is understandable.

In a matter of months, Taiwan lost three allies to the PRC. In May, the Dominican Republic and Burkina Faso cut ties with Taipei. El Salvador is Taiwan’s fifth diplomatic loss since Tsai Ing-wen came to power as São Tomé and Príncipe and Panama also jumped ship in 2016 and 2017, respectively.    [FULL  STORY]