A number of European countries have expressed understanding of Taiwan's stance against China's planned anti-secession law, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michel Kau (高英茂) told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday.
Kau is currently leading a delegation to explain to several European countries why Taiwan opposes the proposed law.
"We hope the international com-munity can pressure China to step back from making the law. This is the goal we want to achieve by explaining to European countries why we are against the proposed law," Kau said.
Apart from Kau's group, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also deployed delegations to the US and Japan to lobby for support against China's plan.
Lo Fu-chen (羅福全), president of the ministry's Association of East Asian Relations and a former representative to Tokyo, is heading the delegation to Japan.
MAC Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) is leading the delegation to the US. He is is scheduled to meet with US officials and academics to discuss the proposed law and other issues in Washington.
Kau, who has visited Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic and Germany on this trip, said most European government officials and academics he has talked to only heard of the anti-secession law from media reports.
"They do not have sufficient understanding of the law. However, the EU has consistently expressed the hope of seeing China and Tai-wan get along peacefully. They do not want both sides to resort to the use of force or bilaterally change the status quo," Kau said.
Kau, whose another task in Europe is to persuade the EU to retain its arms ban on China, said some Scandinavian and East European countries strongly disapprove of Beijing's lackluster human rights record and refusal to give up the threat to use force against Taiwan.
"These countries oppose removal of the arms ban. Meanwhile, although leaders in France and Germany have demanded the ban be lifted for the sake of economic benefits, they cannot reach consensus on this issue within their own countries," he said.
Some German think tanks, Kau said, disagree with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's unrelenting push for removal of the arms ban and have criticized him for not consulting with his foreign ministry on the matter.
"The removal of the arms ban and the launch of the anti-secession law would definitely have a negative impact on the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. We hope the EU can give serious thoughts on the consequences," Kau said.
He said Taiwan is not playing a zero-sum game with China.
"We welcome European countries building relationships with China, but firmly oppose China's strategy of getting big nations to oppress Taiwan," he said.
Kau said based on their professional and moral judgment, most EU countries support Taiwan's entrance to the World Health Organization (WHO). He is also trying to solicit support for Taiwan's ninth bid to participate in the WHO's annual meeting in Geneva in May.
"But these countries face great political pressure from China. The US and Japan have lent their support for Taiwan's participation in the WHO despite Beijing's pressure. We hope the EU can follow in the US and Japan's footsteps," he said.
Kau's delegation is due to travel to Luxemburg, France and Belgium in the coming days.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
China is likely to focus on its economy over the next four years and not set a timetable for attempting to annex Taiwan, a researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday. In the article titled “Why China isn’t scared of Trump: US-Chinese tensions may rise, but his isolationism will help Beijing,” Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) wrote that the US and China are unlikely to go to war over Taiwan in the next four years under US president-elect Donald Trump. While economic and military tensions between the US and China would
RSS