A photo of Taiwan Foreign Service, in exchange for two sanctions orders in Beijing: why Belize and Paraguay refuse to bow down

30 September, Taiwan and BelizeSigning of a cooperation agreement for the training of diplomats. The signing table is accompanied by two flags, flowers and signatures from the Minister for Foreign Affairs. For Belize, this is a regular interaction between sovereign States and established State partners. In less than two weeks, Beijing responded with another document: October 12, the Beijing government has been able to provide a new version of the story.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China issued Decree No. 22The sanctions were declared against the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belize, Francis Fonseca. The blogger says:Order No. 21The Minister of Communications and Technology of Paraguay, Gustavo Villat, was added to the same list.

China ' s sanctions are specific: they freeze the property of two persons in China, prohibit domestic organizations and individuals from trading with them, deny visas and prohibit entry into China, Hong Kong and Macao. The information on the extent of the property of the two Ministers in China is not available; The real economic destructive effect of the freeze may be limited for current ministers in Central and South America, but the political intent is unequivocal — allowing foreign officials to bear individual penalties for maintaining official relations with Taiwan.

Maui Ning, Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign AffairsAt the press conference on October 12thThe two were accused of supporting Taiwan, of interacting with Taiwan officials and of referring to the Chinese cyber attacks. This is precisely the essence of the dispute: Beijing has written its position on Taiwan ' s status into the Foreign Sanctions Act, which then uses it to deal with the diplomatic activities of officials of independent States. China can certainly decide who to grant a visa, but it cannot therefore be given the power to decide who Belize or Paraguay should recognize as a diplomatic partner.

The Government of Belize has not accepted this logic.I'm sorry. Its diplomatic service has publicly stated that Fonseca is carrying out its national duties and that sanctions will not alter Belize ' s foreign policy; The Government also invoked the principles of sovereign equality and sovereign diplomacy established in the Charter of the United Nations to oppose unilateral coercion against foreign officials. For small countries with hundreds of thousands of nationals and limited resources, the response is more significant than sanctions themselves: it refuses to cede the decision on diplomatic relations to a large country whose population and economy are far larger than its own.

Paraguay was also not involved in the dispute by accident. As a major official State of Taiwan in South America, Paraguay has long been under diplomatic pressure from the Chinese market and the incentives for investment. The listing of individuals in Bilyat, who is in charge of digital communications and technology policy, shows that Beijing ' s pressure is no longer limited to foreign ministers: even members of the Government may be targeted for political discipline when they come into contact with Taiwan from the perspective of technical cooperation, cybersecurity or information policy. The full classification of such cross-sectoral contacts as “separation activities” is in effect a narrowing of Taiwan's international life space.

More importantly, it is a model of an international order in which the major Powers not only impose terms of trade on the weak, but also require the officials of the weak to follow the narratives of the great Powers in their political expression and their external cooperation. The consequences are not more than two travel bans. Other diplomats from Taiwan who had come to Taiwan would see that visits to the Taiwan Taiwan Strait, training and online attacks could be incorporated into the individual sanctions system in Beijing. To maintain an autonomous policy, additional external costs must be borne.

Sanctions orders may be issued by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of China, but cannot vote for the Belize Parliament or the Government of Paraguay. On 12 October, Beijing did demonstrate its ability to enforce the ban; By refusing to change the relationship between the two countries, they demonstrated another power — a smaller State that can still say “no”. This is not an abstract Chinese-American corner, but a direct political test for two ministers and two sovereign Governments.