Salvador and Taiwan announced on Monday that they broke diplomatic relations and the Central American country says it will establish them with China.
In this way Taiwan loses a new ally in the hands of Beijing. There are only 17 countries left that officially recognize Taiwan.
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"We are not willing to continue a money competition with China," said Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu at a press conference.
The minister accused Salvador of asking for financial support in a constant way since last year for a project to build a port that, according to Taiwan, was shown to be "inadequate" after its evaluation.
On the other hand, Salvador's president, Salvador Sanchez Ceren announced Monday night in a televised speech that his government had broken diplomatic relations with Taiwan and instead established new diplomatic ties with China.