My Take | Paraguay may be next to switch ties to China
- President Mario Abdo Benítez wants Taiwan to cough up US$1 billion. Otherwise, the Chinese market beckons for his country’s powerful farming lobby
Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez doesn’t mince words. He has told Taiwan to give them money or risk his country switching diplomatic recognition to mainland China. Are all Latin American politicians so blunt?
“There is Taiwanese investment of more than US$6 billion in countries which don’t have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, we want from that US$1 billion to be put in Paraguay,” he told the Financial Times. “That will help us to build the argument about the importance of this strategic alliance with Taiwan.”
He said he faced “enormous” pressure to tilt towards Beijing.
“Imagine what the [agricultural] producers say when meat prices fall and they don’t have access to China,” Abdo said. “They ask you: ‘Please, we have to open up to the Chinese market. What does Taiwan give us when we are a country which could sell its entire soy and meat output to China?’”
Paraguay is one of 14 states that still recognise the island of Taiwan instead of mainland China. In recent years, Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, and Panama, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua in Latin America have switched ties.