Taiwan News
Date: 2018/08/22
By: Pingdong Ark, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer
The Central American Republic of El Salvador has broken off diplomatic
Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je, and the flags of El Salvador and Taiwan (photos by Wikimedia Commons and CNA)
relations with the Republic of China (i.e. Taiwan). Taiwan’s government used to make an effort to maintain relations with El Salvador, but beginning last year, that country’s ruling party began requesting a considerable amount of funds to support its development. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration judged the development project to be unfair, as it would threaten Taiwan to fall into debt, so the island nation never agreed to the funding requests.
In addition, El Salvador faces elections with the ruling party performing poorly in the opinion polls, so it also approached China, and Beijing used the opportunity to upset the diplomatic relationship between El Salvador and Taiwan.
Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was asked whether he thought China had purposefully provoked the ending of official relations between El Salvador and Taiwan.
Ko said it was only to be expected, the United States had been pressuring China, so China pressured Taiwan. During the interview, Ko called out that “Beijing should adapt its own strategic principles, and should not allow nationalism to rise, cross-strait relations should be considered under the U.S.-China framework.” [FULL STORY]
