Taiwan says China's involvement in Honduras is obvious

TAIWAN: Taiwan sees China's involvement in Honduras' decision to seek to end relations with the island as very obvious and the situation does not look good with Honduras demanding a "high price", the island's foreign minister said on Thursday.

Honduras denied on Wednesday it had demanded $2.5 billion in aid from Taiwan before its announcement to seek to open relations with China, instead saying the country had repeatedly requested Taiwan buy Honduran public debt. Speaking to reporters at parliament, Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said the situation with Honduras was "not very good".

"The other side demanded a high price," he added, when asked about the $2.5 billion demand, though he did not directly confirm it saying only that "the facts will out". China, which views Taiwan as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, has involved itself in the issue, Wu said, without giving details.

"The marks of Chinese involvement are very obvious," he said. But Taiwan will not engage in dollar diplomacy with China, Wu added.

"We've entered a very difficult phase," he said. "But we'll work hard until the last minute." Honduras has yet to formally end ties with Taiwan, but diplomatic sources in Taipei say they expect this is only a matter of time.

That would leave Taiwan with diplomatic relations with only 13 countries.