The relationship between China and Europe would be determined by Beijing’s behavior, including what happens with Taiwan, the EU’s foreign policy chief said yesterday.
The comments from EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, in a remote address at the start of the meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Japan, highlighted two of the themes that have come into focus ahead of the three-day gathering: the need for a united approach to China and concerns about Taiwan.
China is front and center as the foreign ministers of the world’s advanced democracies meet in the Japanese resort town of Karuizawa.
Photo: Reuters
The only Asian member of the grouping, Japan has increasing concerns about China’s growing might in the region, and is particularly focused on the possibility of military action against Taiwan.
“Anything that happens in Taiwan Strait will mean a lot to us,” Borrell said, stressing the need to engage with China and keep communications open.
He described China as a “partner, competitor and systemic rival,” and said that which of those three relations the EU would lean toward “will be determined by China’s behavior.”
The ministers are likely to discuss their “common and concerted” approach to China, a senior US Department of State official said.
“There is collective concern about a number of the actions that China is taking,” the US official told reporters on the plane to Japan from Vietnam, declining to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information.
Recent G7 statements have included calls for candid and constructive engagement with Beijing while recognizing that “individually all the G7 members have deep economic relationships” with the world’s second-largest economy, the official said.
German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock sought to underscore the G7’s unity.
“As democracies, we are successful in systemic competition with autocratic forces when our partners and friends around the world have confidence in us. We must avoid that our unity is misunderstood by others as separation or that new rifts are opened,” she said in a statement before her trip to Japan.
Taiwan would also be a subject of discussion, the senior US official said, but declined to comment on any specific new language.
Separately, a state department official said that G7 foreign ministers would also discuss how to ensure Ukraine has weapons and other defensive equipment it needs over the long term, North Korea and ways to deepen ties with Southeast Asian nations, as well as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which consists of the US, India, Japan and Australia.
There would also be extended discussions on how the G7 can spur more global infrastructure building in developing nations across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, the official said, adding that some announcements are planned for next month during the leaders’ summit.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
RSS