Coup against China: Peña’s presidential victory strengthens Paraguay-Taiwan ties

The victory of the official Santiago Peña in the presidential elections of Paraguay confirms the continuity in the relations of this country with Taiwan, established more than 60 years ago and which had been questioned during the electoral campaign.

Paraguay is one of 13 countries that still officially recognizes Taiwan and not China, after the breakup of Honduras in March.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was among the first to congratulate Peña. “I look forward to deepening the long-standing relations between our countries and seeing the government and people of Paraguay prosper under your leadership.”, he wrote Monday on Twitter.

Peña, a 44-year-old economist who will replace President Mario Abdo in August, has been emphatic in defending these relations, a point in Taiwan’s favor that adds to the visit to Taipei a week ago by Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei.

“We are united by a bond of democratic principles and values”, Peña asserted in an interview with AFP.

“Having more trade with a giant like China is probably going to make our market even more primary than it is. Trade with Taiwan can lead us to develop a much more powerful industrial base, and that will allow Paraguay to have more muscle”, he also maintained, before the claims of agricultural producers and ranchers for accessing that market.

“To swim against the current”

The president of the Rural Association of Paraguay, Pedro Galli, has instead insisted that for his sector “the bar that we have is our relationship with Taiwan”.

“There is no chance of entering the Chinese market if we do not recognize China. We’re swimming against the current”, he said in recent days to the press.

Paraguay is among the main producers of bovine meat. In 2022, it exported more than 333,000 tons for some US$ 1.722 million, according to the state National Service for Quality and Animal Health. Its main destinations were Chile, Russia and Brazil.

Meanwhile, soybean exports were 2,272 tons last year, equivalent to US$ 1,226 million, according to figures from the Central Bank.

The destinations of these sales were Argentina and Brazil, its great partners in Mercosur and also important producers of the oilseed.

“Behind Taiwan’s policies there is transparent aid and others that we do not knowGalli protested.

In this sense, the analyst Sebastián Acha highlighted that in Paraguay “It ties us a lot to Taiwan that a large part of the political sector receives its support for the campaigns ”.

Of the countries that recognize Taiwan, seven remain in the Latin American and Caribbean region: Guatemala, Belize, Paraguay, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

The other States are the Vatican, Swaziland in Africa, and the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau and Tuvalu in the Pacific.

China and Taiwan separated in 1949, after the Chinese civil war.

Beijing regards the island of 23 million as a rogue province, which it hopes will one day recapture even by force. And under the “One China” principle, it does not allow any country to simultaneously maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei.

Source: AFP