Nicaragua hands over ex-Taiwan embassy to China

A good two weeks ago, Nicaragua broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan — and has now also handed over the premises of the Taiwanese embassy to China. The Taipei government protests.

After the diplomatic break with Taiwan , Nicaragua wants to hand over the premises of its previous embassy to the People’s Republic of China — much to the annoyance of Taipei . Taiwan’s government is protesting against the «illegal occupation of their property» and its transfer to the People’s Republic, said the foreign ministry of the island democratic republic.

Worldwide there are only 14 countries that diplomatically recognize Taiwan — including small Pacific countries, Caribbean islands, states in Central America and the Vatican . With its one-China doctrine, the communist leadership in Beijing does not allow any country to have relations with both the People’s Republic and Taiwan. Beijing regards the now liberal Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic and tries to isolate it internationally.

Taiwan strongly condemns, it said, that Nicaragua’s government has demanded that embassy personnel be withdrawn within just two weeks, by December 23. Taiwan symbolically sold the premises of the former diplomatic mission to the Catholic Church in Nicaragua at short notice — the leadership of the Central American country arbitrarily blocked this.