China Lures Taiwan's Latin American Allies
China Lures Taiwan's Latin American Allies
For the U.S., China's economic influence in Central America "is getting pretty close to home," argues AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth.
The power struggle between China and the island of Taiwan is playing out in an unlikely region — Latin America.
The biggest bloc of Taiwan's few remaining world allies is in Central America and the Caribbean. But even that solidarity is splintering.
In August, El Salvadoran President Salvador Sánchez Cerén went on national television and said the words Beijing has long worked hard around the globe to hear: "The government of the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate representation of all of China and Taiwan forms an inalienable part of the Chinese territory," said Sánchez Cerén.
..."Countries that have had a very close relationship one way or the other with the United States, that's different, particularly from the view of Washington," said Eric Farnsworth. "It is getting pretty close to home, literally and figuratively, and that's why I think alarm bells are starting to go off."
