Honduras snaps ties with Taiwan in favour of China: Which countries recognise Taiwan currently?

On 26 March 2023, SC and FM Qin Gang held talks with Foreign Minister of Honduras Eduardo Reina in Beijing, and they signed the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Honduras. pic.twitter.com/zMvEdP4CIQ

— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) March 26, 2023

The establishment of formal relations with China soon after ending them with Taiwan is connected to the “One China” Policy, which goes back to the origins of the country in 1949. Here’s what it says.

What is the One China Policy?

The idea is often mentioned by Chinese leaders. For instance, China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang said the establishment of ties with Honduras proved that the “One China” policy is winning people’s hearts and is “the general trend.”

‘One China’ for China basically refers to the principle that it is one country, composing mainland China and the island of Taiwan. Why these are referred to separately in the first place is because around the time of China’s consolidation into a modern, unified state, as it then composed of many kingdoms, there was disagreement over how the country would be governed.

There were two main political parties – the Mao Zedong-led Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the nationalist Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai Shek. After the communist forces won the Chinese civil war in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan and set up the government of the Republic of China on the island, and remained President until 1975. Taiwan called itself the Republic of China (ROC) and mainland China called itself the People’s Republic of China (PRC), both vying to represent the ‘real’ China.

At the time, only a few countries recognised the PRC. It was much later in 1971 that the PRC managed to enter the UN through Resolution 2758, which unseated ROC as the official representative of “China”. But over time as PRC emerged out of a kind of isolation and gained economic and political heft, it made sense for countries to establish official relations with it. Only 13 countries recognise Taiwan now: Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, Eswatini, Vatican City, Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Beijing has never recognised the existence of Taiwan as an independent political entity, arguing that it was always a Chinese province. Taiwan says that the modern Chinese state was only formed after the revolution of 1911, and it was not a part of that state or of the People’s Republic of China that was established after the communist revolution. Taiwan, at present, has its own elections and defence forces.

One China policy and US-China rhetoric 

The US did not recognise the PRC till 1979, doing so only after it ended its ties with Taiwan. In a 1978 US-PRC joint communique, they said: “The United States of America recognises the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China. Within this context, the people of the United States will maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan.”

It added: “The Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China.” The US only has unofficial relations with Taiwan now.

For China, there will be an eventual, full reunification with Taiwan. In May 1955, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai stated that “the Chinese people are willing, when conditions permit, to strive to liberate Taiwan by peaceful means.” Mao Zedong and other leaders have also mentioned the concept of Taiwan eventually returning to the mainland. Deng Xiaoping stated that “so long as Taiwan returns to the embrace of the motherland, we will respect the realities and the existing system there.”

But of late, China has dialled up the rhetoric, with increasing US-China friction and leaders vary of China getting elected in Taiwan. Foreign Minister Qin has said, “We inform sternly the Taiwan authorities that engaging in separatist activities for Taiwan independence is against the will and interests of the Chinese nation and against the trend of history, and is doomed to a dead end.”

Is the US One China Policy different from the “One China” principle stressed by Beijing?

The One China Policy of the United States is not the same as the “One China” principle of the PRC, according to a One China Policy Primer published by the Brookings Institution. “The One China Policy contains more elements, such as the US interest in a peaceful process of cross-Strait dispute resolution, and its differing interpretation of Taiwan’s legal status as compared to Beijing’s interpretation,” it says.

It states that in the 1980s, the US shifted to using “policy” in place of “principle” to differentiate between the US approach and China’s version.

Also, according to the Primer, when US officials refer to the One China Policy, “they usually elaborate by listing several defining elements: adherence to the three US-PRC communiques of 1972, 1978, and 1982; implementation of the Taiwan Relations Act enacted in April 1979; an abiding interest in the peaceful resolution of the differences between the two sides; opposition to either side unilaterally changing the status quo and non-support for de jure independence of Taiwan”.