Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Honduras to switch ties from Taiwan to China, says president

Honduras to switch ties from Taiwan to China, says president

Xiomara Castro’s move would leave Taiwan with formal diplomatic relations with only 13 countries
The Honduras president, Xiomara Castro, has said she has instructed her foreign minister to establish official relations with China, a move that would end its ties with Taiwan and further isolate the island on the world stage.

The Central American country’s switch from Taipei to Beijing would leave Taiwan with formal diplomatic ties with only 13 countries.

China does not allow countries with which it has diplomatic relations to maintain official ties with Taiwan.

Castro, who made the statement on Twitter on Tuesday, had raised the idea of cutting ties with Taiwan and starting relations with China during her electoral campaign. In the tweet on Tuesday, Castro said the decision was “a sign of my determination to fulfil the government plan and expand borders”.

The move comes weeks after her government announced it was negotiating with China to build a hydroelectric dam called Patuca II.

On Wednesday, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it had expressed “serious concerns” to the Honduran government over Castro’s announcement, urging the country to carefully consider its decision and “not fall into China’s trap” and destroy the long-term friendship between the two nations.

“Taiwan is a sincere and reliable ally. Our country has always assisted Honduras in its national development to the best of our capabilities. China’s only goal in developing relations with Honduras is to shrink our country’s international space, it has no sincere intentions to cooperate for the good of the Honduran people,” the ministry said in a statement.

China’s foreign ministry welcomed the move, saying that it would develop “friendly and cooperative relations” with Honduras.

The Honduran foreign minister, Eduardo Reina, said the decision was about “pragmatism, not ideology” and was motivated by the country’s debt.

Reina said Honduras had needs in energy, social policies and servicing its debt, which were “drowning the country”.

He said Honduras paid $2.2bn last year and must pay another $2.3bn this year for its external and internal debt, which totals $20bn.

Reina added that “171 countries in the world have relations with continental China” and the economic reality was that Honduras “had to take that decision”.

“The idea is to look for mechanisms for greater investment [and] commerce,” he added.

Reina told local television that Honduras intended to keep trade ties with Taiwan.

According to Taiwan’s ministry of foreign affairs, it has diplomatic relations with Eswatini, the Holy See, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Paraguay, Honduras, the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Latin America has been a source of tensions between Beijing and Taipei.

Aligned with Washington, all Central American countries had maintained ties with Taiwan for decades. But with Honduras switching to Beijing, now only Guatemala and Paraguay have formal relations with Taipei. Paraguay’s opposition says it will switch ties to Beijing if it wins the election in April.

Over the past decade or so, Costa Rica, in 2007, Panama (2017), El Salvador (2018) and Nicaragua (2021) severed ties with Taipei and established relations with Beijing, which had for years lobbied Taipei’s diplomatic allies.

China has also been accused of using bribery to achieve its diplomatic aims. Last week the outgoing president of Micronesia, David Panuelo, accused China of “political warfare” in its attempts to prevent the Pacific country from switching ties from Beijing to Taipei.

Timothy Rich, an analyst at Washington-based thinktank the Global Taiwan Institute, said the “substantive effects” of Honduras switching ties from Taipei to Beijing “should be limited assuming Taiwan avoids kneejerk reactions”.

“Taiwan cannot compete on aid packages alone and should not myopically focus on formal diplomatic partners that cannot aid its economic or security concerns,” Rich said.

The move by Honduras comes ahead of theTaiwan president Tsai Ing-wen’s planned trip to Central America next month where she is expected to visit Guatemala and Belize. More sensitively, she is to transit the US and meet the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, which is likely to anger China.

China sees Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy run independently from Beijing, as a renegade province that must “unify” with China and has not ruled out the use of force against the island. Beijing reacts aggressively to attempts by governments to engage with Taipei, lashing out at diplomatic delegations to Taiwan.

The latest diplomatic moves come amid growing concerns by the US and its allies over a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The People’s Liberation Army sends daily military sorties across the Taiwan Strait to wear down Taiwan’s military, in what analysts have called “grey zone warfare”.

China flew 28 military planes across the Taiwan strait on Wednesday morning, 16 of which crossed the median line, an unofficial border dividing the two shores, according to Taiwan’s ministry of defence.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×