Nicaragua resumes ties with China in new blow to US, Taipei

Nicaragua has re-established diplomatic relations with China after severing ties with US-backed island territory of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), boosting Chinese presence in a region Washington has long claimed as the US backyard.

The decision was announced and welcomed Friday by China’s foreign ministry as the “correct choice” meetings between Chinese officials and Nicaragua’s visiting finance minister and two of President Daniel Ortega’s sons in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.

The move follows months of deteriorating relations between Managua and Washington, and came on the day the US State Department declared imposition of sanctions against Ortega’s National Security Adviser Nestor Moncada Lau.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Taipei's allies -- now only 14 tiny countries mostly in Latin America and Oceania -- have maintained ties with the island merely due to pressure from the US and Chinese Taipei's "dollar diplomacy."

Managua’s break of ties with Chinese Taipei further shrinks the island's diminishing band of international allies and represents a new blow to the US, which was evidently enraged by the Nicaraguan decision.

The development came as Washington once again accused China last week of planning to invade Chinese Taipei, warning Beijing that taking the island by force would have “terrible consequences."

SS