Guatemala Goods Rejected by China, President Bernardo Arevalo Says It's Because of Country's Support for Taiwan

China and Guatemala's new center-left President Bernardo Arevalo are not seeing eye-to-eye right now as the CCP-run country rejected entry to some shipments from Guatemala. Macadamia nuts and coffee shipments from Guatemala to China were reportedly rejected to enter the communist Asian giant.

Guatemala's exporters' association reported that China rejected entry to at least seven containers of macadamia nuts, with traders being told that Guatemalan macadamia and coffee would be denied entry.

This came after President Bernardo Arevalo reaffirmed Guatemala's support to Taiwan on a platform that was run by a Chinese company, TikTok, according to the Taiwanese newspaper, the Taipei Times. Arevalo was in a live question-and-answer session on TikTok when he addressed the Taiwan issue.

"As you know, the inauguration of the new Taiwanese government, which Guatemala has ties with, was a few days ago," he said on the China-run platform. "There could be some dispute with China related to this."

Arevalo stated that the rejection of Guatemalan goods might have something to do with his country's continued support for Taiwan, which is something of a sore spot for Beijing, which continues to claim the independent and democratic Asian island nation as its own.

The Guatemalan president added that he and the government are working to resolve the trade issue with China but have not yet received any response from the Communist government. Despite the disagreements the two countries have over Taiwan, Guatemala still exported $82 million worth of goods to China last year.

Guatemala Government Under Bernardo Arevalo Repeatedly Sent Support to Taiwan

The ties between Guatemala and Taiwan run deep, and Bernardo Arevalo is only continuing that tradition, which has always irked China as it thumped the so-called "One China Policy," which claims that Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China, as part of one country, which is the People's Republic of China.

As Reuters has noted, Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Ramiro Martinez was in Taipei for the inauguration of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Monday. Lai Ching-te is an ardent opponent of Communist China and has been loud in his opposition to Beijing. Meanwhile, Arevalo publicly thanked and offered his "staunch support" to Lai. He also called for the "further strengthening of ties" between the two countries.

Taiwanese Ambassador Comments on Taiwan's Ties with Guatemala

Before the new president's inauguration, Miguel Tsao, who serves as Taiwan's Ambassador to Guatemala, stated that "Taiwan is the gateway to Asia, while Guatemala is the gateway to Central and Latin America."

He added that the two countries share "the common values of freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights" before thanking the overseas Taiwanese community in Guatemala and introducing new President Lai before them during an event. Lai spoke in a video call.

The event in Guatemala was soon followed by Communist China accusing Taiwan of dealing in "dollar diplomacy" with the Central American country, claiming "Taiwan had maintained political support from Guatemala by paying off its politicians," something Communist China is infamous for doing in Latin America and Africa.

China's foreign ministry made the accusation but did not present any evidence regarding this.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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