‘WORRIED’:
The president said in an interview in the US that China’s influence in South America ‘comes hand-in-hand with the weakness of many countries in the region’
By Yang Cheng-yu / Staff reporter
Paraguay would not sever ties with Taiwan, Paraguayan President Santiago Pena said in a recent interview, while voicing concern over China’s growing influence in South America.
Pena made the remark in an interview with Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae while visiting the US. It was published on Monday last week.
Paraguay, as a leading country in food production, should focus on technology, innovation and human capital regarding development goals, he said.
Photo: Screen grab from Paraguayan President Santiago Pena’s X account
Asked whether Taiwan could help Paraguay enter the world of semiconductors, Pena said that competing with or replicating Taiwan’s semiconductor model “is not an objective.”
“What we do want to replicate from Taiwan is how high human capital can generate enormous opportunities for a country,” he said.
Paraguay has strong educational ties with Taiwan, and the two sides jointly established the Taiwan-Paraguay Polytechnic University in 2019, which “is allowing us to generate human capital of the highest level,” Pena said.
He spoke of the country’s potential in serving as a data storage center and developing related technological services due to its geographical location, abundant natural resources and lack of natural disasters.
Regarding China’s influence in South America, Pena said that he was “very, very, very much” worried about the issue, as it “comes hand-in-hand with the weakness of many countries in the region.”
Many countries have chosen to pursue closer ties with China, “because they have no other option,” not because they believe that China would provide them with the best opportunities, he said.
Venezuela’s economic weakness allowed China to exert its influence, while China’s clout in Argentina “not only put Argentina at risk, but also the entire region,” he said.
Pena said that Paraguay “is not against” Mercosur, a South American trade bloc that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay as full members, signing a free-trade agreement with China.
“Paraguay does a lot of trade with China. What Paraguay is not willing to do is break its relationship with Taiwan,” he said.
During his trip to the US, Pena met with Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) to “promote an increasingly stronger and closer relationship between our countries to move together towards a better future for our nations,” he wrote on social media platform X on Tuesday last week.
Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.
