Again, it means that you have to keep on making contacts and keep on ensuring that the Taiwanese voice is heard in its own right.
TT: Earlier you mentioned the EU would soon make a decision on when and how to set up a representative office here in Taiwan. What's the latest development?
Yahuda: I think that the establishment of the EU representative office here should not been seen as a favor.
Obviously with Taiwan in the WTO, it would be in the EU interest to ensure that they are able to regulate their trade with Taiwan in a positive way. After all, the value of trade between Taiwan and the EU is nearly US$40 billion a year, which is quite a substantial amount of trade. And I think that there are various measures that the Europeans worry about with regard to China that actually don't apply to Taiwan in the same way. So I think after China and Taiwan enter the WTO, it (the EU's move to set up a representative office in Taipei) would be seen not as part of the struggle, if you like, between Beijing and Taipei. But it would be something that would be seen within the European interest itself.
TT: In the paper you presented in the seminar today on Taiwan's security in the year 2000, you argued that the EU could play a role in improving cross-strait relations largely because the EU doesn't have major strategic interests at stake in this part of the world. Would you like to elaborate on that argument?
Yahuda: The Chinese are much more likely to pay attention to pressures from the EU which say, for example, that the use of force would be very damaging to the stability, and therefore even to the economic development of China.
If that were to be said by European representatives, it would carry weight in Beijing. And if it were the Japanese and Americans that said it, the Chinese would suspect their motives for saying it.
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