Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) called for closer ties with the EU on Wednesday during his first visit to the European Parliament in Brussels.
Wang suggested that the European Parliament push for visa-free entry to the EU for citizens of the Republic of China, who make approximately 260,000 trips to Europe each year.
Visa-free access could help increase bilateral cooperation and exchanges, Wang said.
FINAL LEG
Belgium is the final leg of Wang’s European trip, which took him to Italy and the Vatican.
Wang last visited the European Parliament seven years ago at its seat in Strasbourg, France.
On Wednesday, Wang was invited to deliver a speech on the nation’s relations with the EU and with China at a luncheon hosted by the European Parliament’s Taiwan Friendship Group.
Wang told his audience at the parliament building that since the inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) last May, the new government had pursued a flexible and pragmatic approach toward relations with China and other countries.
GRATITUDE
Wang said participating in international organizations such as the WHO remained one of the government’s priorities, and he expressed gratitude to the European Parliament for adopting a resolution last week in support of observer status for Taiwan in international organizations that do not require statehood.
Wang urged the EU to further support Taiwan by helping it broaden the scope of its international participation.
At the end of the speech, Member of Parliament Georg Jarzembowski, head of the Taiwan Friendship Group, presented an award to Wang, who is also chairman of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, in recognition of his contribution to promoting democracy and human rights.
In return, Wang conferred a medal on Jarzembowski to thank him for promoting diplomacy with Taiwan.
SECOND AWARD
Later on Wednesday, a similar medal was presented at a separate setting to Graham Watson, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, who has long supported Taiwan.
Watson will run for the presidency of the European Parliament in June.
In a separate meeting with European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering, Wang expressed his appreciation to the legislative body for supporting the nation’s bid to participate in international organizations.
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