March 16, 2023
BEIJING – China welcomes Honduran President Xiomara Castro’s decision to seek diplomatic relations with Beijing and is willing to develop friendly ties with the Central American nation, and all other countries, on the basis of upholding the one-China principle, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday.
In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Castro said she had instructed Honduran Foreign Affairs Minister Eduardo Reina to begin the process of establishing official relations with China as “a sign of her determination to comply with the government plan and freely expand borders in concert with the nations of the world”.
Honduras is one of the remaining 14 countries that still have so-called diplomatic relations with the Taiwan region after Nicaragua severed its ties with the island and resumed diplomatic relations with China in 2021.
According to the General Administration of Customs, the trade volume between China and Honduras was $1.59 billion last year.
Speaking at a news conference in Beijing, Wang said the fact that 181 countries have established diplomatic relations with China based on the one-China principle shows that establishing such ties is the correct choice, which is consistent with “the trend of the times”.
During her presidential campaign in 2021, Castro, who is the first woman to assume the presidency in Honduras, had said the Central American nation would seek diplomatic ties with China if she was elected.
In response, Wang had expressed Beijing’s willingness to grow friendly and cooperative relations with all countries on the basis of upholding the one-China principle.
Noting that opposing “Taiwan independence” and separatism and adhering to the one-China principle are overriding trends with strong popular support, he had also warned that any attempts to create the false impression of “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan” would lead nowhere.
Since Tsai Ing-wen became the leader of the Taiwan region in 2016, a total of eight countries have severed their so-called diplomatic ties with the island and established or resumed diplomatic relations with China.
Observers have said it is the trend of the times to recognize the one-China principle and establish diplomatic relations with Beijing, and the remaining nations will choose to do so in the long run.