EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell in an opinion piece published in a French newspaper on Sunday stressed Taiwan’s importance to Europe and called on European navies to patrol the Taiwan Strait.
Europe should reject Chinese action against Taiwan “because it would be, in economic terms, extremely serious for us, because Taiwan has a strategic role in the production of the most advanced semiconductors,” he said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken similarly highlighted the importance of Taiwanese semiconductors in September last year when he said that an attack on Taiwan would devastate the global economy.
Of course, it is not only Taiwan’s semiconductors, but also free passage through the Taiwan Strait itself that would be threatened in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan. EU officials have said they would sanction China in the event of such an attack, and China would likely blockade the Strait in response to such sanctions. This would have a devastating effect on global trade, as important shipping lanes in the Indo-Pacific region run through the Taiwan Strait. Regional flights might also be put at risk.
European countries are becoming more aware of the importance of protecting Taiwan’s sovereignty. The UK’s HMS Richmond warship passed through the Taiwan Strait in September 2021, with a British official calling it “a powerful demonstration of the UK’s ... commitment to maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.”
In July last year, then-joint commander of the French Armed Forces in the Asia-Pacific Rear Admiral Jean-Mathieu Rey told a Tahitian newspaper that France would sail through the Taiwan Strait if deemed necessary. China at the time said that it had “sovereign rights” over all of the Strait, which Rey said was “completely wrong,” as the Taiwan Strait is “an international strait.” In December last year, a German Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said that Berlin would redouble efforts to contest China’s sovereignty claims over the Taiwan Strait and continue to assert its position that it is part of international waters.
That Europe’s concerns about the security of Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait are growing is evident in the large number of delegations that have visited Taiwan in the past few months. Finnish and Swiss delegations arrived in Taipei in February, during which Swiss National Councilor Fabian Molina said that “Authoritarianism and war must not prevail.”
Last month, a delegation led by former Kosovar prime minister Avdullah Hoti, a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China Policy, met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and in the same week a delegation led by Czech Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova also arrived in Taipei. “As a free, democratic country, we support others who are standing behind the same values,” said Adamova, who made the drip despite concerns that it would anger Beijing.
Taipei should do what it can to foster support for Borrell’s proposal that EU navies regularly transit the Taiwan Strait. Beijing’s attempts to normalize its claims over all of the Taiwan Strait cannot be left unchallenged. The government could aim to facilitate such transits by upgrading port facilities, allowing foreign ships to make port-of-call visits. Transits could also be an opportunity for military exchanges, joint drills or intelligence sharing. Taiwan and the EU have shared interests in keeping the Taiwan Strait open and free.
Taiwan has engaged in discussions with the US and countries in Europe on the issue of trade agreements. Increased trade with other democracies is crucial to Taiwan’s efforts to reduce its dependency on the Chinese market. At the same time, Taipei should explore the possibility of security pacts with friendly countries. Doing so will be increasingly important to global economic security as Beijing threatens free passage in the Taiwan Strait.
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