One-China principle is nonnegotiable

Shortly after Guatemalan officials made public on Monday the desire of the Bernardo Arevalo government of developing trade ties with the Chinese mainland, while maintaining its "diplomatic relations" with Taipei, the secessionist-minded Tsai Ing-wen authorities of the Taiwan island said in a statement that it did not come as a surprise and the trade ties the Central American country seeks to build with the mainland will not conflict with its "diplomatic ties" with Taiwan.

The Arevalo government took office in mid-January amid people's call to fight corruption and spur economic growth. While the first part of the Arevalo government's desire is fully understandable, the second part is totally unacceptable. It must realize that it cannot butter both sides of the bread at the same time.

Taipei has tried to smear Guatemala's openness to trade with the mainland as a testimony to Beijing's "checkbook diplomacy". But it is actually Taipei's failure to provide a broad market and enough opportunities to its "diplomatic partners" that has directly prompted the latter to take the initiative to switch their focus to the mainland.