Salvador cuts ties with Taiwan

Taiwan’s President, Doctor Tsai Ing-wen concluded a visit to Latin America which included a three-day stop in Belize. She headed back to Taipei on Saturday, but first stopped over in Houston, Texas where she visited the NASA installations, which has irritated China.  But the news today is that El Salvador has severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and moved to China.  There are now only seventeen countries worldwide which officially recognize the Taiwanese government, nine of which are from this region, though support has been dwindling since Panama and Dominican Republic recently established relations with Beijing.  El Salvador’s President, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, announced the rupture of relations saying there are extraordinary opportunities that come with the recognition of China.  Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, responded saying that El Salvador had recently asked for loans for a port project that Taiwanese engineers concluded was economically unfeasible.  Wu also denounced Chinese tactics of using project financing to gain allies and said Taiwan was unwilling and unable to do so.