{"id":31245,"date":"2016-12-21T01:30:40","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T01:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/african-island-nation-sao-tome-cuts-diplomatic\/"},"modified":"2016-12-21T01:30:21","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T01:30:21","slug":"african-island-nation-sao-tome-cuts-diplomatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/african-island-nation-sao-tome-cuts-diplomatic\/","title":{"rendered":"African island nation Sao Tome cuts diplomatic ties with Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{The government of Sao Tome and Principe has cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, officials said.}<\/p>\n<p>China welcomed the decision by the African island nation saying it was &#8220;back onto the correct path of the One China principle&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Taiwan&#8217;s foreign ministry condemned the move, alleging Sao tome demanded a huge amount of financial support.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;One China&#8221; principle insists that there is only one China in the world and that Taiwan is a part of it.<\/p>\n<p>The move comes just over a week after comments by US president-elect Donald Trump that the US did not have to abide by the One China policy &#8211; the diplomatic acknowledgement by the US of the One China principle.<\/p>\n<p>The move means only 21 countries and governments, including Swaziland and Guatemala, still maintain official ties with Taiwan.<\/p>\n<p>{{&#8216;Astronomical financial help&#8217;}}<\/p>\n<p>Sao Tome suspended ties with China in 1997, after choosing to officially recognise Taiwan.<\/p>\n<p>Any country that wants diplomatic relations with mainland Beijing must break official ties with Taipei, leading to Taiwan&#8217;s diplomatic isolation from the international community.<\/p>\n<p>Taiwanese Foreign Minister David Lee alleged on Wednesday that Sao Tome was demanding &#8220;an astronomical amount of financial help,&#8221; without providing further details.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We think the Beijing government should not use Sao Tome&#8217;s financing black hole &#8230; as an opportunity to push its &#8216;One China&#8217; principle,&#8221; Mr Lee said on Wednesday.<br \/>\n&#8220;This behaviour is not helpful to a smooth cross-strait relationship.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>China has not said whether it will now establish diplomatic ties with the West African state.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-17186 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_93057599_gettyimages-459019272.jpg\" alt=\"Now only 21 countries in the world maintain official ties with Taiwan\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{The government of Sao Tome and Principe has cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, officials said.} China welcomed the decision by the African island nation saying it was &#8220;back onto the correct path of the One China principle&#8221;. Taiwan&#8217;s foreign ministry condemned the move, alleging Sao tome demanded a huge amount of financial support. The &#8220;One [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31245"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31245"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}