WorldChina
China sanctions Paraguay and Belize ministers over their Taiwan ties
Beijing froze the ministers' assets in China and barred them from entry, calling them pawns of Taipei. Taiwan called the move absurd, as its military watched a week of Chinese live-fire drills along the coast.
Key points
- China sanctioned Belize's foreign minister Francis Fonseca and Paraguay's ICT minister Gustavo Villate.
- The measures include asset freezes, entry bans and a ban on Chinese dealings with the two men.
- Taiwan's defence ministry is monitoring Chinese live-fire drills in five coastal zones this week.
China on Monday imposed sanctions on two serving ministers from countries that recognise Taiwan, accusing them of acting as “pawns” of the island’s government and warning other capitals to take note.
The targets are Francis Fonseca, Belize’s foreign minister, and Gustavo Villate, Paraguay’s minister of information and communication technologies. Beijing said it would freeze any assets they hold in China, deny them visas, including for Hong Kong and Macau, and bar Chinese organisations and individuals from dealing with them.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a briefing in Beijing that the measures were meant to “penalize them and serve as a warning to others”. “Certain politicians in Paraguay and Belize have willingly served as pawns of the Taiwan authorities,” she said, accusing them of meeting “Taiwan independence separatists” and of spreading “disinformation about Chinese cyberattacks”.
Why these two
Both men have been visible friends of Taipei. Fonseca met Taiwan’s foreign minister, Lin Chia-lung, in Belize last month. Villate met Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister, Chen Ming-chi, in Paraguay in June. In July, Paraguay and the US embassy in Asunción said hackers linked to the Chinese government had broken into Paraguayan state systems, a charge Beijing denied.
Villate said the sanctions were “to be expected” given joint projects with Taiwan, including a data centre. “We are very calm. We will continue working on all the projects we have and we will push this even more strongly,” he said. Belize’s foreign ministry did not respond immediately.
The measures are largely symbolic, since ministers from Taiwan’s allies rarely travel to China. Paraguay and Belize are two of only 12 countries that still have formal diplomatic ties with Taipei.
Taipei hits back
Taiwan’s foreign ministry called the Chinese statement “utterly absurd” and the sanctions a “blatant interference in the sovereignty and foreign policies of other nations”. It said China “has no right to interfere in Taiwan’s diplomatic relations” and that Taiwan would keep working with all its allies.
The move came two days after President Lai Ching-te’s National Day speech, in which he said Taiwan cherishes peace but will not give up its freedom. Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, condemned the speech.
Drills along the coast
Taiwan is also keeping watch on a week of Chinese live-fire exercises. China’s Maritime Safety Administration has issued no-sail notices for five areas stretching from the South China Sea to Liaoning province in the north-east. None is around Taiwan itself; the closest is off Zhejiang province.
Defence Minister Wellington Koo told lawmakers on Monday that the military’s early view was that coastal artillery units were holding firing drills. He said Taiwan would keep monitoring “whether firing or military training”, adding that it followed the principle of “anticipating the enemy as broadly as possible”.