Chinese President Xi Jinping promised his Honduran counterpart Xiomara Castro on Monday that Beijing would “strongly” support her country’s development after Tegucigalpa established diplomatic relations with Beijing, abandoning those with Taipei.

China considers Taiwan its province, pending reunification with the mainland after the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. For more than 70 years, Beijing and Taipei have competed for diplomatic recognition from other states.

Honduras, a small country in Central America, recognized Taiwan for decades, but President Castro announced in March that she had decided to recognize the government of China, implementing her pre-election announcement.

This change of diplomatic course is a “historic decision that shows your strong political will”, Mr Xi told Ms Castro during their meeting yesterday, as the Honduran president continued her first official visit to the Asian giant, according to the official Chinese news agency, China News.

The previous day, the Honduran embassy in Beijing was officially inaugurated. China opened its own embassy in Tegucigalpa last week.

“China will develop (…) friendly relations with Honduras and strongly support its economic and social development,” the Chinese president assured. His country, he continued, is willing to become “a good friend and a good partner of Honduras in a spirit of mutual respect, equality, with mutually beneficial advantages and common development.”

He also promised that negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement would begin “as soon as possible” and that his country would “promote the availability of Honduran products to the Chinese market.”

Xiomara Castro was expected to sign a series of deals during her six-day first official visit to China, which ends on Wednesday. Agreements on trade, agriculture, science, technology and education were signed yesterday, according to Chinese state television CCTV.

Beijing has drawn several allies from Taiwan in recent years. Only 13 state entities now recognize Taipei, among them Paraguay, Haiti and the Vatican.

“Hegemony”

In their joint statement, China and Honduras note that they want to strengthen their cooperation in the financial sector, in that of health and tourism. Beijing has invited its companies to invest in the Central American state.

The parties also “oppose any hegemony” and “any intervention in the internal affairs of other countries”, one reads in the text. These allusions in Chinese diplomatic language generally concern the US, which has not hidden its skepticism, if not its displeasure, about the diplomatic course chosen by Honduras.

Tegucigalpa pledged to “actively participate” in the new Silk Roads, a pharaonic program to develop infrastructure – ports, roads, railways, etc. – abroad.

Mrs. Castro’s government decided the country would sever ties with Taiwan that it had maintained for decades and reach out to China in search of investment and jobs.

Tegucigalpa also wants Beijing’s help in reducing the heavy burden of servicing its public debt, with the support of its new partner’s financial institutions.