Panamanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Isabel de Saint Malo, left, shakes hands with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, during a joint press briefing yesterday after they signed a joint communique agreeing to establish diplomatic relations in Beijing.
Photo: AFP

Taiwan is cutting diplomatic ties with Panama after the Central American country switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) announced yesterday.

Human rights activist Lee Ming-che’s (李明哲) name has been added to the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s (CECC) database of political prisoners, a first step toward US efforts to help win his release.

The commission informed Lee Ming-che’s wife, Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), of its decision via a formal letter, sources said yesterday.

More than 70 percent of Taiwanese reject China’s insistence that “the two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China” as a political prerequisite for the development of cross-strait relations, a poll released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) showed.

The poll showed that 73.4 percent of respondents do not recognize Beijing’s adherence to the “one China” principle as a political precondition and consider it an effort to treat Taiwan as a local government.