EU External Affairs Commis-sioner Chris Patten was firm in a recent interview with the Euro-pean Voice that the 15-state bloc will open its representative office in Taipei next month.
In an interview with Peter Chapman of the Brussels-based English-language weekly, Patten said the EU decided to name the office in Taipei "The European Economic and Trade Office" -- a rather "neutral" title -- to enhance economic and trade interactions with Taiwan, while avoiding provoking Beijing.
He stressed that although the EU adheres to the "one China" policy, it does not mean that it ignores its relations with Taiwan -- which is the union's third-largest trading partner in Asia.
Although Taipei office will mainly handle economic affairs, Patten said it will pay equal attention to cooperation in other fields, particularly in science, technology and education.
Patten pointed out, however, that the office will have no diplomatic status and will not handle political affairs either.
Dismissing speculation that the EU's office is aimed only at overseeing Taiwan's observation of WTO regulations, Patten said the EU's relations with Taiwan should by no means be confined only to WTO-related relations.
Rather, he said, the EU office will handle all non-political affairs and relations between Europe and Taiwan.
In the future, the EU hopes to strengthen trade and investment exchanges and foster economic and sci-tech cooperation with Taiwan to create conditions that would be conducive to regional and global prosperity, Patten said.
In the interview, carried in the European Voice's current edition, Patten said the EU spared no efforts in pushing for Taipei and Beijing's entrance to the WTO and it will continue to support Taiwan's membership in other international organizations as long as the organizations' criteria allow it.
On Taipei's bid to join the World Health Organization, Patten noted that membership involves a statehood requirement, but added that the EU hopes Taiwan be allowed to take part in the organization's activities that require no statehood, because it recognizes the active role that Taiwan has been playing in international relief aid and medical and health affairs.
On China's military threats against Taiwan, Patten said the EU is firmly opposed to the use of force in the Taiwan Strait and he urged both sides to exercise restraint to prevent tensions from escalating.
On Taiwan's international situation, Patten said this issue hinges on how cross-strait relations will develop and it remains an issue to be settled only by the people of Taiwan and China themselves.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift