Why did China woo away Nicaragua from Taiwan?

Nicaragua’s decision to sever diplomatic links with Taiwan and recognize China leaves the self-governing island democracy with just 14 diplomatic allies. Most are small, largely poor nations in the Western Pacific, the Caribbean and Latin America, the one exception being the Vatican. At the same time, Taiwan enjoys robust unofficial ties with the United States and dozens of other countries.

Yet, the loss of formal allies further constrains the Taiwanese leadership’s ability to make state visits abroad and feeds into Beijing’s narrative that Taiwan is losing the diplomatic battle and will eventually be forced to accept the inevitable outcome of political union with the People’s Republic of China.

“We believe that sooner or later, these countries will ... establish or restore normal diplomatic relations with China. It is only a matter of time, and moreover, an unstoppable trend of the times,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Friday.

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