China opens embassy in Nicaragua for the first time since 1990

China opened an embassy in Nicaragua on Friday for the first time since 1990, acting just over three weeks since the government of President Daniel Ortega. broke off relations with Taiwan.

Foreign Minister Denis Moncada said that there is an “ideological affinity” between the two countries. Moncada also thanked China for donating one million doses of Sinopharm’s coronavirus vaccine.

Ortega established relations with China in 1985, but after losing the 1990 presidential elections, the government of the new Nicaraguan president, Violeta Chamorro, recognized Taiwan.

The government of Nicaragua broke off relations with the Taiwanese on December 9 and last week it seized the former Taiwanese embassy and diplomatic offices, saying they belong to China. However, the new Chinese embassy is located elsewhere and it is unclear what China will do with the Taiwan building.

Before leaving a week ago, Taiwanese diplomats attempted to donate the properties to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Managua. But the Ortega government said any donation would be invalid and that the building in an exclusive Managua neighborhood belongs to China.

The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry condemned the “gravely illegal actions of the Ortega regime” and said the Nicaraguan government violated standard procedures by giving Taiwanese diplomats just two weeks to leave the country.

He said that Taiwan “also condemns the arbitrary obstruction by the Nicaraguan government of the token sale of its property to the Nicaraguan Catholic Church.” Monsignor Carlos Avilés, vicar of the Archdiocese of Managua, told La Prensa newspaper that a Taiwanese diplomat had offered the property to the church, but added: “I told him there was no problem, but the transfer was still in legal process.”

The Central American country said in early December that it would officially recognize only China, which claims autonomous Taiwan is part of its territory.

The measure increased Taiwan’s diplomatic isolation on the international stage, even as the island has intensified official exchanges with countries such as Lithuania and Slovakia, which do not formally recognize Taiwan as a country. Taiwan has 14 remaining formal diplomatic allies.

China has been poaching Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in recent years, reducing the number of countries that recognize the democratic island as a sovereign nation. China is against Taiwan representing itself in global forums or in diplomacy.

Taiwan presents itself as a defender of democracy, while Ortega was re-elected as Nicaraguan leader in November in what the White House called a “mock election.”

“The arbitrary imprisonment of nearly 40 opposition figures since May, including seven potential presidential candidates, and the blocking of political party participation manipulated the outcome long before Election Day,” US President Joe Biden said in a speech. released in November.

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