A visiting German lawmaker yesterday told President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that his nation is opposed to changing the cross-trait “status quo” by unilateral or non-peaceful means.
Peter Heidt of the Free Democratic Party is leading a six-member delegation from the Bundestag’s Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid to Taiwan.
Other members of the delegation are Heike Engelhardt and Derya Turk-Nachbaur of the Social Democratic Party, Michael Brand and Carsten Brodesser of the Christian Democratic Union, and Boris Mijatovic of the Greens.
Photo: Wang Yu-ching, EPA-EFE
Berlin firmly opposes “changing the cross-strait status quo via means other than peaceful ones and without mutual consent,” Heidt said during a meeting with Tsai in Taipei.
The delegation wants to obtain first-hand insight into how Taiwan is responding to increasing Chinese military coercion, as well as the role of human rights in Taipei’s response, he said.
Heidt also called for the abolition of capital punishment in Taiwan, describing the practice as inhumane “not only to death-row inmates, but to judges and executioners too.”
Photo: CNA
Taiwan last carried out an execution in 2020 and has 38 inmates on death row.
Tsai thanked Germany for overseeing the issuance of joint statements by the leaders and foreign ministers of the G7 in support of Taiwan.
Germany currently holds the G7’s rotating presidency.
Tsai said that the group’s public statements showed concern for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
The delegation is the second from Germany to visit Taiwan this month, following a visit from Oct. 2 to 6 by a seven-member delegation led by German-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group chairman Klaus-Peter Willsch.
Earlier yesterday, Kenneth Wollack, chairman of the US-based National Endowment for Democracy, said that Taiwan’s democracy is a model for the world amid the rise of authoritarianism internationally.
Wollack made the remarks during a meeting with Tsai at the Presidential Office in Taipei.
Praising Taiwan’s commitment to advancing freedom, Wollack said that the nation also demonstrated that “in a world of strongmen, a strong woman could lead a democracy.”
“We recognize that this is a young democracy that emerged after nearly four decades of martial law. Despite continuing internal and external challenges, this is not a place where democracy is in peril,” he said.
Taiwan’s democracy is a tool for stability and prosperity that binds its citizens together, he added.
Wollack is leading a delegation of pro-democracy advocates to attend the 11th Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy to be held in Taipei from today to Thursday.
Tropical Storm Gaemi strengthened into a typhoon at 2pm yesterday, and could make landfall in Yilan County tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The agency was scheduled to issue a sea warning at 11:30pm yesterday, and could issue a land warning later today. Gaemi was moving north-northwest at 4kph, carrying maximum sustained winds near its center of up to 118.8kph and gusts of 154.8kph. The circumference is forecast to reach eastern Taiwan tomorrow morning, with the center making landfall in Yilan County later that night before departing from the north coast, CWA weather forecaster Kuan Shin-ping (官欣平) said yesterday. Uncertainty remains and
SEA WARNING LIKELY: The storm, named Gaemi, could become a moderate typhoon on Wednesday or Thursday, with the Taipei City Government preparing for flooding A tropical depression east of the Philippines developed into a tropical storm named Gaemi at 2pm yesterday, and was moving toward eastern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Gaemi could begin to affect Taiwan proper on Tuesday, lasting until Friday, and could develop into a moderate typhoon on Wednesday or Thursday, it said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued as early as Tuesday morning, it added. Gaemi, the third tropical storm in the Pacific Ocean this typhoon season, is projected to begin moving northwest today, and be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday, the agency said. Today, there would likely
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