Beijing sanctions Paraguayan and Belizean ministers over support for Taiwan
Belize signed a diplomatic training deal with Taipei this year, while Paraguay began a data centre investment project
Gustavo Villate, Paraguay’s minister of information and communication technologies, and Francis Fonseca, Belize’s minister of foreign affairs, foreign trade, education, culture, science and technology were sanctioned, effective from Monday, the foreign ministry said, citing China’s anti-foreign sanction law.
The measures include freezing their assets within China, prohibiting Chinese entities and individuals from transacting or cooperating with the pair, and denying them entry to China, including to Hong Kong and Macau, it added.
The two ministers were accused of “obstinately supporting … so-called ‘diplomatic ties’ with China’s Taiwan region” out of “self-interest” in recent years, the foreign ministry said in two separate statements on Monday morning.
