China sanctions two ministers of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Scholar: Xi Jinping slaps Xi Jinping in the face

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced today that because it is dissatisfied with Belize and Paraguay's continued maintenance of diplomatic relations with Taiwan, it has decided to implement countermeasures against the ministers of the two governments, freezing their properties in China, prohibiting organizations and individuals in China from trading or cooperating with them, refusing to issue visas, and banning entry into China. Scholars have criticized that CCP leader Xi Jinping recently declared that he would abandon power politics, and China's sanctions on ministers of the two countries today are just "Xi Jinping slapping Xi Jinping in the face."

The two people sanctioned by China this time are Gustavo Villate, Paraguay’s Minister of Communications and Science, and Francis Fonseca, Belize’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Education, Culture, Science and Technology. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the relevant measures will take effect from October 12, 2026.

The CCP claims that in recent years, certain "anti-China politicians" in Belize have stubbornly supported Belize in maintaining so-called "diplomatic relations" with Taiwan out of their own selfish interests, and have adopted a series of "evil words and deeds" on issues involving China, harming China's core interests. Billiat was also subject to the same sanctions. China accused him of supporting Paraguay in maintaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan and taking actions that harmed China's core interests on China-related issues.

In this regard, Hong Puzhao, director of the Global Strategy and Democratic Resilience Research Center at Taipei City University, said in an interview that Paraguay and Belize are sovereign countries, and maintaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan is an independent diplomatic decision made by the two countries. China's invocation of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law to punish foreign officials for violating its own sovereignty claims is tantamount to declaring that other countries' foreign policies must be subject to China's political review.

Hong Puzhao criticized that Xi Jinping emphasized at the BRICS leaders' meeting that international rules should be jointly written by all countries. He even bluntly said that the logic of might as justice does not work and should have been abandoned long ago. Now, China has imposed sanctions on foreign ministers who have normal exchanges with Taiwan and requires other countries to obey China's "one-China principle." According to Xi Jinping’s own standards, China’s diplomatic behavior today is exactly the kind of power politics that he says should have been abandoned long ago.

Hong Puzhao analyzed that this sanction also exposed how China uses domestic laws as a tool to exert external pressure. By publicly sanctioning ministers of the two countries, China has issued a warning to other countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan, so that foreign officials must consider the risk of being sanctioned by China when dealing with Taiwan. The purpose of such individual punitive measures is to increase the political cost of supporting Taiwan by friendly officials, thereby interfering in the foreign policy decisions of other countries.

Hong Puzhao said whether these sanctions can have real economic effects depends on whether the two officials have assets or business contacts in China. However, since China requires the international community to abide by jointly formulated international rules, it has no reason to require other countries to obey its political red lines. China's sanctions on the ministers of the two countries today are exactly "Xi Jinping slaps Xi Jinping in the face."