The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday that it would send three more delegations to Europe to solicit stronger international opposition to China's planned "anti-secession law."
The three delegations will travel to Nordic and Baltic states, and other European countries that Taiwan's previous delegations have not visited. Fearing that China might pressure the countries not to issue visas to the Taiwanese delegations, the ministry declined to disclose the details of the delegations' itineraries.
"We hope the international community can pay attention to the threat the Taiwanese people are facing as a consequence of the [anti-secession] law and that it would stop Beijing from continuing with the legislation," said Maysing Yang (楊黃美幸), chairperson of the ministry's Research and Planning Committee, at a press conference.
A number of political groups visited the ministry yesterday asking it to think about measures to counter China' law.
"The anti-secession law may change the lives of the people in Taiwan. It is an evil law," said Wu Shuh-min (吳樹民), chairman of the Northern Taiwan Society, at a meeting with Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (高英茂).
Wu noted that although the anti-secession law is a Chinese domestic issue, it would absolutely have an impact on the operations of Taiwanese businesses in China.
"I am very concerned," he said.
In its previous efforts to join the UN and WHO, Taiwan, to avoid its sovereignty disputes with China, has always adopted a humble attitude, Wu said.
"This led China to think that the Taiwanese people are weak and that it could make an anti-secession law to oppress people here," Wu added.
Members of various political groups urged the ministry to harden its stance on China and to not hit back until Beijing made a move against Taiwan.
Kau, who led the country's previous delegations to Europe, said European countries have gradually understood that the anti-secession law would hurt the Taiwanese people's human rights.
"Many European countries do not take Taiwan's problem with China seriously. They said the international community has other things to worry about, such as the situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and North Korea," Kau said.
"We need to let the world know that cross-strait problems are not an insignificant matter. It affects regional peace and stability in Asia," he added.
Kau called other countries in the world to resist China's anti-secession law.
"It is an unreasonable law, exploiting democracy and human rights. If the world could have fought against Hitler earlier than it did, how different the world would look like today," he said.
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