Imagine that a country government imposes sanctions on the officials of another country because those officials are part of a government that diplomatically recognizes the government of a third country.
Such sanctions might be justified if the third-country government being diplomatically recognized were one of the tyrannies, like Russia or the People’s Republic of China. Why not give people who resist such tyrannies the moral support that the sanctions would then imply?
Early in their respective histories, the United States did not diplomatically recognize either the People’s Republic of China or the Soviet Union. Then “practical” American politicians had their way.
But it’s the PRC that is the country government imposing sanctions alluded to in the first paragraph. Beijing is imposing sanctions on officials of the governments of Paraguay and Belize, two of the dozen countries on earth that maintain diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (The Associated Press, October 13, 2026).
China sanctioned Paraguay’s communications minister and Belize’s foreign minister on Monday over ties with Taiwan, the island democracy Beijing claims as its own….
“Certain politicians in Paraguay and Belize have willingly served as pawns of the Taiwan authorities in their attempts to seek Taiwan independence by soliciting external forces,” [babbled] Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.
She added that the foreign officials had visited Taiwan and received visits by “Taiwan independence separatists,” as well as “spread disinformation about Chinese cyberattacks to smear and attack China, creating a seriously negative international impact.”…
The U.S. State Department condemned China’s sanctions on Tuesday.
“The Trump Administration opposes coercion and aggression by China against countries in our hemisphere for exercising their sovereign rights,” department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.
Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai on Tuesday told reporters that the island democracy is a sovereign country and that China has no right to interfere in its internal affairs or influence its foreign relations….
Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi also criticized China’s moves, noting that Taiwan’s international visibility is growing.
“Are they going to sanction the entire world?” he said.
The sanctioned individuals are the foreign minister of Belize, Francis Fonseca, and the communications minister of Paraguay, Gustavo Samaniego. If they have any assets in the PRC, those will assets be frozen. And Fonseca and Samaniego are prohibited from entering the People’s Republic.
The lies and the lunacy expressed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry are so beyond the pale that, especially considering all else of which Beijing is guilty, the many countries that currently maintain formal diplomatic relations with Beijing and not Taipei will now have no rational moral choice but to switch teams immediately.
