The Chinese regime is increasingly using targeted sanctions against foreign officials to pressure Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and restrict the self-governed island’s international space, according to a report by The Epoch Times (TET). The report said the strategy marks a shift in Beijing’s approach, with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) directly targeting individual foreign officials rather than relying solely on state-level diplomatic and economic pressure.

Beijing has directly targeted sitting cabinet members
The development follows Beijing’s announcement on October 12 of sanctions against Paraguay’s Communications Minister Gustavo Villate and Belize’s Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca over their support for Taiwan. The measures include freezing their assets in China, prohibiting Chinese organisations and individuals from cooperating with them, and denying them entry into mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. According to TET, the sanctions mark the first time Beijing has directly targeted sitting cabinet members from countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The island currently has 12 diplomatic allies, primarily in the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean.

recognition from their countries
Hung Pu-chao, director of the Center for Global Strategy and Democratic Resilience at the University of Taipei, told The Epoch Times that Beijing was turning sovereign foreign policy decisions into personal legal risks for individual officials. Although the sanctions may have limited economic consequences for the two ministers, Hung said their targeted nature allows China to limit diplomatic fallout while retaining the possibility of securing diplomatic recognition from their countries in the future.

exercising their sovereign rights
Huang Kwei-bo, a professor at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, said Beijing likely targeted the ministers because their remarks went beyond routine expressions of support for Taiwan. According to Huang, Paraguay’s minister invoked the Taiwanese people’s right to self-determination, while Belize’s foreign minister described Taiwan as a country embracing democracy, development and innovation. The United States condemned the sanctions on October 13. US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the Trump administration opposed China’s coercion and aggression against countries exercising their sovereign rights. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry also denounced the measures as interference in other countries’ sovereignty and foreign policy. Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, is a self-governed democracy that the CCP has never controlled, although Beijing claims the island and has not ruled out using force to bring it under its control.