U.S. recalls envoys from three Central American countries that cut ties with Taiwan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said the recall was just the beginning after the United States recalled three top envoys from Central American countries that have severed ties with Taiwan.

The U.S. State Department announced last Friday that it was recalling the U.S. ambassadors to El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, as well as the Chargé d’affaires in Panama. Rubio, chairman of the Western Hemisphere Affairs Panel of the U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, later tweeted that this was just the beginning.

He said that, as he said earlier after El Salvador decided to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan, El Salvador thought that the U.S. reaction would be the same as when Panama and Dominica broke ties with Taiwan, but they were very wrong to think so.

Rubio also reacted to a report in the Miami Tribune citing Latin American diplomats who said the U.S. had only itself to blame for retreating from Latin America, allowing Chinese influence into the Western Hemisphere region.

Rubio said that Latin American diplomats were right, but what they did not make clear was the role played by China's hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and donations to political parties.

U.S. officials worry that four other countries in Central America that still recognize Taiwan, namely Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, may follow in the footsteps of these countries and sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Four heavyweight U.S. senators including RubioThe Taipei Act was also proposed, hoping that the US government would do something to support Taiwan's diplomatic status.

The New York Times quoted former U.S. ambassador to Panama Feli on Sunday as saying that the U.S. recall of the three foreign envoys sent the U.S. government an appropriate and serious signal to the three countries that the U.S. is examining the impact of their diplomatic turn and that the U.S. is concerned about itsinterests may be jeopardized.

Feli said his personal view is that the U.S. government would be most focused on issues of industrial and commercial espionage, and the potential for Beijing to use its embassies to expand that kind of activity in those countries and the Caribbean.