President-elect Santiago Peña appears with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, and her Foreign Minister, Joseph Wu, on Friday the 14th, during a tour of the tourist fair and a traditional tea fair, in the city of Taichung, located 170 kilometers from Taipei.
President-elect Santiago Peña reaffirmed the solid ties of friendship and cooperation between Paraguay and the Republic of China-Taiwan, when visiting the island before his inauguration of command on August 15. As a result of this confirmation of the maintenance of relations with Taipei, the new government chose to rule out any possibility of dealing with the Chinese communist regime, which is why our country is the only one in South America that recognizes Taiwan as the authentic representative of the Chinese people.
Santiago Peña took advantage of his presence in Taiwan to refute the arguments put forward by an important sector of the business world that wants a diplomatic relationship with Popular China, supposedly for “economic convenience” and to set aside the “nostalgic” relationship with the Taiwanese, which dates back to the Cold War era.
Peña is an economist by training and dismissed the idea of the economic or commercial advantage of a relationship with the mainland Chinese to the detriment of the “rebel” island, when he stated in a meeting with the media before returning to Asunción, that “the The relationship with Taipei will favor the industrial development of the country and the diversification of markets”.
His argument in favor of the island is not based on purely political considerations, “nor on a matter of nostalgia or a friendship, but rather there are solid foundations, there are concrete facts that support why it makes more sense to have a relationship with Taiwan than with China.” continental”.
And then he addressed those who want a relationship with the Chinese communists: “Paraguayan businessmen believe that having a diplomatic relationship with China Popular will open up that market more. I tell them no”.
The president-elect explained that the experience of Latin American countries that broke with Taiwan and went into the arms of mainland China has not been good, after what happened with their economies, whose situation instead of improving is showing a tendency to worsen, as indicated by the situation in Costa Rica, Panama and recently Honduras.
Peña argued that the enormous industrial capacity of mainland China can hinder the development of the industry in Paraguay, instead of encouraging it, “so that they have greater advantages selling to us than we can have.”
Despite not having formal diplomatic relations with the Beijing regime, Paraguay actually maintains brisk trade with mainland China, with 30 percent of its total imports coming from the Asian giant.
This enormous purchasing power is not offset by a similar purchase of Paraguayan products by mainland Chinese, so local businessmen think that recognition by the communist government could help find balance in the trade balance, which has been refuted. by Santi Pena.
For the president-elect, fluid trade with the Chinese is already taking place, so Taiwan could become the factor that helps Paraguay’s industrial development.