The Foreign Ministry (MOFA) strongly condemns and refutes China’s third Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean, released last week. MOFA says the paper falsely claims Taiwan as an inseparable part of China and opposes any form of independence, which the ministry says is an attempt to distort the truth and mislead the international community.

On Saturday, December 13, MOFA reiterated that the Republic of China (Taiwan) is a sovereign country, independent from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC regime has never ruled Taiwan – a fact supported by the international community, which cannot be changed by attempts to alter Taiwan’s sovereign status.

The Foreign Ministry explained that Latin America and the Caribbean are two regions with the highest concentration of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, providing the best counter-evidence against China’s unilateral claims over Taiwan. They continued that China has a history of using cooperation as a pretext to lure countries into “debt-traps”, and that the international community has long been wary of China’s insidious, deceptive tactics.

MOFA called on all countries to jointly condemn China's long-standing lies, emphasizing that Taiwan won’t bow to intimidation and diplomatic suppression by the authoritarian Chinese government. Instead, Taiwan will continue to uphold its values of freedom and democracy, and work with friendly, like-minded nations to jointly safeguard peace, prosperity, and stability in the Taiwan Strait and Indo-Pacific.