El Salvador breaks away from Taiwan: US expresses its dissapointment
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and El Salvador’s Foreign Minister Carlos Castaneda attend a signing ceremony to establish diplomatic ties between the two countries, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China August 21, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee
El Salvador becomes the third country of Latin America to break up ties with Taiwan and switching allegiance to China for ‘developmental’ purposes. The decision made by El Salvador leaves only 17 governments having faith and recognises the Taiwanese government. With the US’s deportation of 20,000 El Salvadorians earlier this year, the embassy of the country said that their country has been facing a lot of violence and poverty off lately, and now it is taking a risk by placing a stake on China. The reason behind such a drastic statement was later explained by a senior officer of the Embassy that El Salvador needs a ‘new friend’ with better investment plans and growth opportunities. Spokesperson Roberto Lorenzana said that El Salvador cannot turn its back on international reality and that having a bilateral relationship with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies can actually help El Salvador in joining the race towards a ‘developed’ nation.
After the split from the mainland of China in 1949, Taiwan has always been under pressure from its neighbour to give up their sovereignty and the parties have always believed in being the true ruler of ‘China’. The Communist government is trying to absorb democratic Taiwan and erase the acknowledgement of Taiwanese sovereignty. The Chinese government has been very tactful in doing that and has primarily used the target of investment and growth. The United States has expressed its view on the new diplomatic tie-up between El Salvador and China, and what it seems that the US is ‘disappointed’ with the decision. A spokesperson for the US State Department earlier in an interview mentioned that though the US would not meddle with any decision taken by any sovereign state, it is unhappy with the recent development between the countries. Further, he added that the US would be reviewing its own bilateral relation with El Salvador.
China and the United States of America are currently in a deadlock war trade and these major developments might or might not escalate the war trade. Although the US has never mentioned of having any serious diplomatic tie-up with Taiwan, it has urged China to not use coercive measures that might harm the social and economic security of the people.
*Arijita Sinha Roy is a Research Intern at The Kootneeti
