China warns Bangladesh of Taiwan friendship

By Saleem Samad

DHAKA: Angry at the opening of an unofficial Taiwanese trade office in Dhaka, China has warned Bangladesh that such permission would definitely push the bilateral relationship between the two countries into jeopardy.

China has asked the Bangladeshi government to shut down the office immediately as a proof to Bangladesh’s claimed stance on a “one-China policy,” sources said. Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka Chai Xi met several Bangladeshi senior ministers and policymakers, and conveyed his government’s dissatisfaction over and other issues like the failure to implement a few memorandums of understanding (MoUs). Bangladesh responded that it has not shifted from its one-China policy and will never recognise Taiwan as a separate state.

The Chinese ambassador however said his country was no longer sure about Dhaka’s real stance, sources said. Taiwan can do business in Bangladesh without diplomatic recognition, but Dhaka believes in a one-China policy and does not want to annoy China, the Bangladeshi foreign minister said on Thursday. “We are happy with the existing relationship with China and have already categorically said that Taiwan is nothing but a Chinese province,” the foreign minister told reporters after a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the Foreign Ministry.

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