Taiwan's key band of supporters in Latin America is dwindling. In mid June Guatemala announced that it would establish commercial relations with China. Guatemala stressed that it did not want to break with Taiwan, but China has a habit of forcing small countries to choose between it and Taiwan.

The Guatemalan vice-president, Eduardo Stein, announced the mission but instead of leading as he said he would, he sent the finance minister, Marcio Cuevas. The mission arrived in Beijing on 20 June. The Guatemalans say that China will shortly open an "office" in Guatemala City. Stein said, before he left for Beijing, that Guatemala did not want to break off diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Guatemala is currently negotiating a free-trade deal with Taiwan. The Taiwanese expect President Oscar Berger to visit Taipei in August to sign the deal. The Guatemalan foreign minister, Jorge Briz, claimed that Guatemala would not sacrifice diplomatic relations with Taiwan for the chance of more trade with China. Beijing made it clear, however, that Guatemala will have to break with Taipei if its wants to do more trade with mainland China.

The Chinese foreign ministry said that it understood that Guatemala wanted to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC. Taiwan is putting a brave face on Guatemala's defection. It denied that relations between the two countries had cooled because of Guatemala's overture to Beijing. Taiwan and Guatemala have had diplomatic relations for 70 years. Taiwan said that it accepted that the Guatemalan government only intends to try to boost trade with the People's Republic and that diplomatic relations between Guatemala and Taiwan should not be affected. 

Guatemala is interested in exporting raw materials and food to China. In 2004 Guatemala reckoned that it shipped US$20m worth of goods to China through third parties. It said initially that it had imported US$104m worth of stuff from China. When Cuevas arrived in Beijing the trade figures suddenly increased dramatically. The official line, from both the Guatemalans and the Chinese was that trade between the two countries has increased by 42% in 2004 and was now worth US$436m. 

Guatemala's exports to Taiwan were worth US$1.6m in 2004. Its imports from Taiwan came to US$125m. Over half of the 26 countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan are Latin American. 

St Kitts & Nevis: Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, hopes to visit another of his country's faltering allies in September. He announced this intention while receiving the prime minister of the islands, Denzil Douglas, in his office in Taipei. St Kitts & Nevis has had diplomatic relations with Taipei for 22 years, but no Taiwanese president has yet paid a visit. St Kitts & Nevis has yet to establish an embassy in Taipei.

Haiti: The mandate for the UN's stabilisation force in the country ended on 1 June. Initially, the UN Security Council was only able to agree to extend for a further 24 days; China pushed hard for an extension of only six months, while the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and Haiti wanted the mission extended for a full year. On 22 June the mandate was extended by eight months, to 1 February 2006. UN diplomats said that China was throwing its weight around at the UN Security Council in order to weaken Haiti's diplomatic relations with Taiwan. China is particularly annoyed that President Alexandre Boniface is planning to visit Taipei in July. Taiwan is heavily involved in development projects in Haiti and paid for the work on the national stadium in Port-au-Prince which was then used for a soccer match involving Brazil. The prime minister, Gerard Latortue, is offering to visit Beijing before the first round of this year's scheduled elections in October, but is refusing to cancel Boniface's trip to Taipei. 

China has sent two detachments of policemen to serve with the Minustah force of UN peacekeepers. China is planning to send a third detachment for the municipal elections due in October and it will remain for legislative and presidential elections in November and December.