Dead ambassador to Nicaragua’s book makes waves
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said Taiwan worked until the last minute before breaking diplomatic ties with Nicaragua in 2021 in response to a former ambassador to Nicaragua’s claim that Taiwan voluntarily gave up diplomatic relations, revealed in a posthumous publication.
On Dec. 9, 2021, Nicaragua severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan for the second time, switching its recognition to China.
In 1985, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government first ended 55 years of diplomatic relations with Taiwan and switched recognition to China, but after Ortega was replaced in 1990, ties with Taiwan resumed, which were maintained by Ortega when he returned to office in 2007.
In a posthumous autobiography published this month, former ambassador to Nicaragua Jaime Wu (吳進木) said that “Taiwan chose to stand with the US and voluntarily gave up Nicaragua,” the Chinese-language China Times reported on Monday.
Wu had been ambassador to Nicaragua twice — from June 2007 to June 2011, and again from July 2017 to November 2021 — retiring on Nov. 17, 2021. He was granted Nicaraguan citizenship on Dec. 10, 2021, a day after Nicaragua cut ties with Taiwan. Wu died in April last year.
The China Times cited Wu’s autobiography as saying that Taiwan-Nicaragua relations had been steady when he retired, and that the main reason Nicaragua cut ties with Taiwan the next month was because former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration did not congratulate Ortega when he secured his re-election in November that year.
Regarding the report, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Ming-chi (陳明祺) told reporters that the ministry was well-informed about all diplomatic situation, but sometimes when China is engaging in secret diplomacy, the parties involved maintain strict confidentiality.
Regarding Nicaragua severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan, he said the government “worked hard until the last minute” to maintain ties with all of its diplomatic allies, but “sometimes the situation leaves us no choice.”
The ministry is aware of China investing significant resources and effort into poaching Taiwan’s allies, he said, adding that the ministry’s understanding of the situation regarding Nicaragua cutting ties with Taiwan is not the same as Wu’s, and the information has been submitted to the Control Yuan.
Foreign ministry deputy spokeswoman Chen Yi-chun (陳怡君) said when asked for comment that Deputy Minister Chen Ming-chi and the government have a full grasp of the status of all diplomatic allies, and would work hard in their dealings until the last moment.
The Ortega-led Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) had pursued liberation and public welfare, but after Ortega came to power, he established a dictatorship, cracking down on press freedom and civil society groups, she said.
During the 2021 presidential election, Ortega fabricated charges to persecute opposition candidates and potential challengers, violating citizens’ fundamental rights to political participation and betraying his public ideals, as well as the Nicaraguan people’s desire for democratic governance, she said.
“Ortega disregarded the long-standing friendship built on Taiwan’s years of continuous assistance to Nicaragua’s development, and turned to China after the election,” she said, adding that to maintain national dignity, Taiwan severed diplomatic relations with Nicaragua at the time.
The Control Yuan has already issued its findings from an investigation about Wu’s claims in his autobiography, she said.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.