TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Several Honduran opposition candidates vying for the country's November elections support resuming diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Honduras will hold its presidential primaries for all political parties on Mar. 9. On Friday, the University of San Pedro Sula hosted a presidential debate, where candidates from the two major opposition parties, the National Party and the Liberal Party, emphasized their support for restoring diplomatic ties with Taiwan and severing relations with China, per CNA.
Salvador Nasralla, the former vice president of Honduras and a candidate from the Liberal Party, reiterated his stance on rebuilding ties with Taiwan. Nasralla stressed that although resuming relations with Taiwan would provoke China to retaliate against Honduras by leveraging its status as “the largest market in the world,” the country could sustain itself.
Nasralla added that restoring diplomatic relations with Taiwan would strengthen Honduras' ties with the US and enhance its international standing.
Nasralla has also criticized China for using free trade agreements and investments to "exploit" and "colonize Honduras." He pointed out that China’s practice of dumping surplus products has destroyed local small and medium-sized enterprises, and the promised aid has failed to materialize.
He also accused the current president, Xiomara Castro, of selling Honduras' sovereignty to China.
The two National Party candidates, Ana Garcia de Hernandez and Roberto Martinez Lozano, expressed their support for Taiwan. Lozano said that if elected president, he would immediately restore diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Lozano recalled that during the National Party's previous administration, Honduras maintained diplomatic ties with Taiwan while developing trade relations with China. He emphasized that these two things were not in conflict, and there was no need to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan to establish commercial relations with China.
Castro announced in March 2023 that the country would sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish relations with China. However, over the past two years, Honduras has not only become a victim of China's trade dumping, resulting in a substantial trade deficit, but also experienced setbacks in the free trade agreement negotiations, impacting various industries in Honduras.
As a result, there has been increased internal criticism in Honduras, with calls for the government to reconsider its decision to establish ties with China.
Honduras' Secretariat of Economic Development has also criticized Beijing, pointing out that China exports more than US$2 billion (NT$65 billion) worth of goods to Honduras every year. However, Honduras only exports around US$40 million worth of agricultural products, such as coffee, to China, a disparity of 50 to 1, making the trade deficit with China the largest among its trading partners.
