Responding to El Salvador president-elect, China denies it meddles

SAN SALVADOR, (Reuters) - China yesterday rejected comments by Salvadoran President-elect Nayib Bukele, who accused the Asian power of not playing by the rules and intervening in other nations’ affairs.

Bukele, a political outsider who was elected in February as the Central American nation’s next president, has questioned whether El Salvador should maintain diplomatic relations with China.

In August, El Salvador broke ties with Taiwan to establish relations with China, following the Dominican Republic and Panama. China later offered El Salvador about $150 million for social projects and 3,000 tons of rice to feed thousands of Salvadorans struck by a drought.

“China does not play by the rules; they do not respect the rules,” Bukele said on Wednesday at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. “They develop projects that are not feasible, leaving countries with huge debt that cannot be paid back and use that as financial leverage.”

“They are not a democracy, but they intervene in your democracy,” Bukele added.

The Chinese embassy in El Salvador issued a statement on Thursday responding to Bukele’s comments, saying cooperation between China and El Salvador would not be a “debt trap but instead a sweet deal for both nations.”

“China never looks to intervene in the internal affairs of other nations, but always opens and develops diplomatic relations with all countries, just as is the case with El Salvador,” the statement said.

Bukele has been critical of the benefits that El Salvador received after establishing diplomatic relations with China.