Presidents of Taiwan, Guatemala visit Mayan pyramid GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei toured the archaeological site of Tikal on Saturday during a trip by Tsai that aims to shore up the self-governing island’s ties with its remaining allies in Central America. The Taiwanese leader will visit Guatemala and Belize, the island’s only two remaining allies in Central America, where Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama and Costa Rica have all switched their support to China. Honduras broke relations with Taipei a week ago. Under a blazing sun Saturday, Tsai and Guatemalan Foreign Minister Mario Búcaro, representing Giammattei -- who suffers from multiple sclerosis – climbed one of the Mayans’ most important pyramids: Temple II, also called Temple of the Masks. With incense, a Mayan invocation ceremony, a Mayan ball game and an exchange of gifts, Tsai and Giammattei talked as they enjoyed the central square of Tikal archaeological park. The day before, in a joint message, the leaders spoke of unity, solidarity and the values shared by Guatemala and Taiwan. Tsai thanked Guatemala’s government for its support, calling it an ally and partner. She has framed the trip as a chance to show Taiwan’s commitment to democratic values globally. On Sunday, Tsai is scheduled to visit a hospital in the western department of Chimaltenango that was built with the help of a Taiwanese donation. Before arriving in Guatemala, the Taiwanese president visited the United States. She will culminate her visit to Central America with a stop in Belize, before returning to the U.S. The trip also is aimed to solidifying ties in Latin America as China funnels money into the region and pressures its countries to break off relations with the self-governed democratic island. Between 2005 and 2020, the Chinese have invested more than $130 billion in Latin America, according to the United States Institute of Peace. Trade between China and the region has also shot up, and is expected to reach more than $700 billion by 2035. Taiwan now has no more than 13 official diplomatic partners. More than half of those are small countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Belize, Guatemala, Paraguay, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. https://apnews.com/article/guatemal...e388duFetWdVgyCKaq-8mo8AwIcocBaPV3USX6lJEqtmI
Clearly I am not a foreign policy export, I am a simple arm chair foreign policy “expert”. But how does having that list of countries on ones side of the ledger really matter in the grand scheme of things? It seems like a giant waste of money for China to be doing this kinda thing. But I guess it simply seems to provide a narrative that they want, and my uneducated guess would be for domestic politics rather than external politics. Looks much better in your state media when you can say X% of countries supports us on this position. But who knows.
China has been buying up land and govt's in Africa, South America and Central America pretty much ..Taiwan cannot compete with the Chinese practice of buying off politicians in 3rd world countries and monopolizing their natural resources...the US has stupidly ignored these three regions after the orange asshole deemed them all shithole countries. We'll never catch up with the Chinese when it comes to having influence over them at this point and Taiwan doesn't stand a chance...only the United Nations can empower Taiwan to be recognized as a sovereign power and the Chinese business interested have blocked this from happening. Good for Guatemala for standing firm.
China Strikes Deal with Brazil, Woos Saudi ArabiaThe Jewish Presshttps://www.jewishpress.com › ... › Saudi Arabia
When we bribe countries it's called economic aid. Of course, if they refuse we use the CIA to assassinate their leaders and install puppet regimes. But yeah China bribing countries is bad or whatever.
Actually when the Chinese build railroads in Uganda or bridges in Venezuela or Nicauragua...they don't leave. They bribe more effectively than we do by acquiring mining contracts and mineral rights etc...we just sell weapons and leave our own jeeps and tanks there after we bail.
We do take their mineral rights... I mean we do the other things too but we definitely do also take their mineral rights.
