The EU is unlikely to lift its arms embargo against China at the EU Summit that is to be held next week, since China has not shown an overall improvement in its human rights record, a member of the European Parliament (EP) said yesterday.
Bastiann Belder, a member of the EP who arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday for a four-day visit, said yesterday that he did not think the EU would lift the arms embargo on China in the near future.
"There has been an indication that the arms embargo on China will be lifted shortly. However, in 2005 China legislated the `Anti-Secession' Law that [legitimised] the use of non-peaceful means to deal with Taiwan issue. What the Chinese Communist Party did was to shoot [itself in the foot]," Belder said at a conference hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday.
"Besides, China has been paying lip service to the issue of human rights," he said.
Sung Wen-cheng (宋文城), deputy director of the MOFA's Department of European Affairs, also said in a regular press briefing yesterday that the ministry did not think the EU would lift the arms embargo any time soon.
"[Unless] China improves its human rights record substantially, our take is that the EU will not lift the weapons embargo against China. Otherwise, the removal of the sanction would be regarded as an encouragement to China in terms of its crackdown on human rights," Sung said.
However, Sung noted that many European countries -- including France, Italy and Germany -- had sold US$480 million worth of technology and equipment for civilian and military use to China last year.
"Taiwan still needs to pay careful attention to this aspect as some of these countries are inclined to conduct weapons business with China," he said.
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times,
RSS