BEIJING (Reuters) – Honduras opened an embassy in China on Sunday, Chinese state media reported, after the Central American nation severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan earlier this year.
The embassy in Beijing was opened by the foreign ministers of the two countries, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro is in China for a state visit, during which she is to meet her Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, state media reported.
Tegucigalpa ended its decades-long relationship with Taipei in March and established diplomatic ties with Beijing.
China claims that Taiwan has been democratically governed as its own territory without the right to state-to-state relations, a position Taipei strongly rejects. China demands that the countries with which it has ties recognize its position.
Taiwan now maintains formal diplomatic relations with only 13 countries, mostly poor and developing countries in Central America, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
(Reporting by Ellen Zhang and Martin Quin Pollard; Editing by William Mallard)