Paraguay’s Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that it expelled a Chinese envoy from its territory accused of encouraging local lawmakers to support the country cutting ties with Taiwan and embracing China instead.
The Paraguayan Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday that Xu Wei, a diplomat of the Chinese communist regime, had his visa revoked and was given a 24-hour deadline to leave the country due to “interference in internal affairs.”
El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores canceló la visa al diplomático Xu Wei de la República Popular China y le dio un plazo de 24 horas para que abandone el país a raíz de la intromisión en asuntos internos.
— Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (@mreparaguay) December 5, 2024
Juan Baiardi, Deputy Foreign Minister of Administration and Technical Affairs, spoke to the local radio station ABC Cardinal and said that Xu received a Paraguayan visa to participate in UNESCO’s 19th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, a week-long event currently taking place in the city of Asunción. Xu was listed as a “staff member” of the 11-member Chinese delegation.
Xu skipped the UNESCO event sessions and visited the Paraguayan Congress instead, where he spoke to two pro-China opposition lawmakers and made statements regarding Paraguay’s ties with Taiwan, urging the legislators to cut ties with Taiwan in favor of China because “it’s China or Taiwan.”
“I recommend that the Paraguayan government make a correct decision as soon as possible,” Xu reportedly said.
The Chinese communist regime demands that all nations seeking to establish diplomatic ties with the country deny the reality of Taiwan’s existence as a sovereign, democratic state by embracing the Chinese Communist Party’s “One-China Principle,” which states that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is a “province” of China. Paraguay is the only country in South America that recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign country. It has maintained ties to Taiwan since 1957.
In recent years, Honduras, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador, four Latin American nations that once had ties with Taiwan, opted to turn to China, abandoning their relationships with Taipei.
Reuters reported on Thursday that it had obtained a recording of Xu’s comments in which he claimed that “having diplomatic relations with China, you can earn more, save more, lower your costs.”
“My purpose of this visit is to promote, accelerate the process of filling the gap in the map of Paraguay, that gap is gigantic, which is called the People’s Republic of China,” the Chinese envoy reportedly said. “There is no ‘and’ option. With China and Taiwan it’s just ‘or’: China or Taiwan.”
“This person, instead of participating in the UNESCO meeting, which is what he was granted the visa for, dedicated himself to playing politics and interfering in our internal affairs,” Baiardi told ABC Cardinal.
Paraguayan President Santiago Peña has repeatedly stated that his administration would uphold his country’s ties with Taiwan. The Paraguayan government has also said it was open to ties with China so long as it would not have to cut its ties to Taiwan.
“Paraguay is open to establishing diplomatic, consular or commercial relations with China without conditions,” Paraguayan Foreign Minister Ruben Dario Ramirez told U.S. reporters last week. “We are still committed to supporting the Taiwan government, and we don’t accept any condition to break our relations with Taiwan.”
The Taiwanese embassy in Paraguay denounced the Chinese diplomat’s actions in an official statement on Wednesday, insisting that the Chinese communist regime has not represented and will never represent Taiwan.
“The Embassy strongly rejects the public attempt by Xu Wei of the People’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China infiltrated in Paraguay with unknown purpose, to undermine the firm friendship between Paraguay and Taiwan, with the fallacy of ‘one China,'” the statement read.
“The Embassy firmly reiterates that the Republic of China (Taiwan) is an independent and sovereign country, neither Xu Wei nor the People’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China can change this reality. The Chinese Communist regime has not represented, and will never represent Taiwan,” the statement concluded.
La Embajada rechaza enérgicamente a lo intentado públicamente por Xu Wei del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de China Popular infiltrado en Paraguay con propósito desconocido, en socavar la firme amistad entre Paraguay y Taiwán, con la falacia de “una sola China”.
— 中華民國駐巴拉圭大使館-Embajada de Taiwán en el Paraguay (@TW_Paraguay) December 4, 2024
La… pic.twitter.com/e0Su7uHZnU
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian addressed Xu Wei’s expulsion from Paraguay during a Friday press conference. Lin described the accusations against the Chinese envoy as “unfounded and unjustified” and insisted that Taiwan is part of China as per the “one-China Principle.”
“Let me stress that there is but one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” Lin said. “The one-China principle is what has been affirmed in Resolution 2758 of the UN General Assembly and is a basic norm governing international relations and a prevailing consensus among the international community.”
“It is right and just to defend and uphold the one-China principle, no matter where we are. There’s no so-called “interference in internal affairs,” he continued.
Last week, Paraguayan government authorities announced that, with the help of the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), a Chinese hacker group linked to the Chinese communist regime had been found infiltrating its government networks.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here
