China’s hostility toward Taiwan would only have “the opposite effect” of what it hopes to achieve and further alienate Taiwanese, similar to how Russia has changed the perception of many Ukrainians, visiting members of the European Parliament (MEPs) said on Wednesday.
Asked how he viewed China’s attempts to bring Taiwanese into its orbit, German MEP Michael Gahler compared it to the situation in Ukraine.
“There were many Russian speakers in Ukraine who, for a while, asked themselves: ‘Who am I living in this country?’” said Gahler, chair of the European Taiwan Friendship Group, who is leading a delegation of MEPs in Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
After Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, those people made it very clear that “I am Ukrainian. I do not want to be treated as the Russians,” Gahler said.
“Yes, I speak Russian, but I do not want to be treated in such a way. And that is not the future that I see,” he said, describing their change in attitude.
This, along with Russia’s pretext for war — that Russian speakers in Ukraine were discriminated against — has had the “opposite effect” of what Russia hoped to achieve, and the same can be said of China’s approach with Taiwan, Gahler said.
“The more pressure there is, the more you say, ‘no, we belong together and we stand together, and we do not want to be part of something that is so unfriendly to us,” he said.
French MEP Bernard Guetta, a member of the delegation, agreed.
“The Beijing authorities should understand that, because of their hostility toward Taiwan, you are more and more a nation in the making — not only a country, but a nation in the making,” Guetta said.
Asked what he found most impressive about Taiwan, Gahler said it was Taiwan being a “daily provocation” to China.
“You prove every day that one can organize a Chinese-speaking society in a democratic way and in a more successful way than the communist mainland,” he said.
The European Parliament rejecting China’s “misinterpretation” of UN Resolution 2758 was a “sign of unity and broad understanding that we do not want political circumstances to be unilaterally misinterpreted in a certain way,” Gahler said.
The vote against China’s bid to sideline Taiwan in the international community with its interpretation of the resolution was carried on Thursday last week with a strong majority vote of 432 to 60 and 71 abstentions.
While the UN resolution was clear about the People’s Republic of China (PRC) replacing the Republic of China on the UN Security Council and that the PRC is the only representative of China in the UN, there was no language in it indicating that statehood should be the prerequisite for international relations, Gahler said, adding that Taiwan should make use of opportunities to participate in international fora as an observer or participating entity.
“There is no point for China to interpret something against Taiwan that is not in this resolution, and that is their attempt,” he said.
Asked what the delegation discussed with Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during a meeting on Tuesday, Gahler said they were exploring possibilities to broaden economic cooperation between the EU and Taiwan.
The two sides exchanged opinions on how they could arrive at economic agreements in certain sectors, he added.
The European Parliament had earlier proposed entering into a bilateral investment agreement with Taiwan, but many economic insiders said making the move now would be “too ambitious.”
It is the parliament’s job to identify areas of mutual benefit where both sides can strengthen cooperation, Gahler said, citing the signing of memorandums of understanding as an example.
Taiwan is a “world champion” in semiconductors, but the parliament hopes to expand cooperation in artificial intelligence, which is being developed at a rapid pace and is an area where the EU needs to “catch up” by collaborating with Taiwan, he said.
In many cases, the EU has provided the technology used by Taiwan to make new products, he added.
That “mutual dependence” must be further developed so it can better benefit both sides, Gahler said.
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