Editor's note: John Gong is a professor at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) and vice president for research and strategy at the UIBE-Israel. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Today came the news that Taiwan's circle of so-called diplomatic relations in the world has shrunk by one more inch. Honduras announced on March 25 that it had severed ties with China's Taiwan region and on March 26 officially established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China instead. The last nation to switch diplomatic relations to Beijing from Taiwan region was Nicaragua in 2021.

Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen had already lost "diplomatic ties" with eight countries since she took office in 2016, representing a broad trend of Taiwan's so called diplomatic debacles over the years. But this is inevitable, as China's weight in world politics and economy keeps elevating and expanding. It is no stretch of the imagination that one day Taiwan may indeed have to grapple with the real possibility of having no so-called diplomatic relations at all.

The list of countries that still recognize Taiwan has now dwindled to 13. The totality of people in the entire world that officially "recognize" Taiwan is about the size of the population of Beijing. 

The one-China principle is recognized by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971, and is a prevailing consensus of the international community and a universally recognized norm governing international relations.

The Government of Honduras chooses to stand with 181 countries in the world, recognize and undertake to adhere to the one-China principle, sever the so-called diplomatic relations with Taiwan, establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and undertake that Honduras shall no longer develop any official relations or official exchanges with Taiwan. This is the right choice that is in line with the prevailing trend and supported by the people.

In today's world, insulation from China would be tantamount to isolation from the world. As the new Honduran President Xiomara Castro astutely put it, Honduras needs to "expand frontiers freely in concert with the nations of the world." Without a formal relationship with China, developing countries in Latin America like Honduras would be losing out to huge opportunities in tourism, in trade and in investment from China.

China will conduct cooperation with Honduras in multiple fields and tend to turn out to yield win-win benefits for both Honduras and China. Honduras will likely benefit from accelerating to the build-out of a modern infrastructure that is necessary for facilitating trade and attracting investment, and by the way, at an extremely low financing cost from China, which itself benefits from deepening trade and investment relations with Honduras as it expands overseas to form a global economic network.

Taiwan region has 13 more countries still left to go. Which country could be the next one? Now the presidential election in Paraguay is just around the corner. The candidate for the Concertacion coalition and president of the Partido Liberal Radical Autentico (PLRA), Efrain Alegre, has already publicly announced his intentions to follow suit.

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