The Chinese embassy in Ukraine attempted to thwart the Ukrainian parliament’s plan to establish a pro-Taiwan group, Newsweek magazine reported on Saturday.
Ukraine’s parliament on Aug. 17 launched the Taiwan Friendship Group, which is led by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Oleksandr Merezhko and consists of 15 lawmakers, two-thirds of whom belong to the ruling party.
Newsweek reported that “a diplomatic dispute is brewing between Ukraine and China” as Beijing lodged a protest against the newly established group at the Ukrainian embassy in China last week.
Photo: Reuters
Merezhko was quoted as saying that China is “trying to dictate what a foreign parliament should do,” adding that he turned down a request to meet with Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong (范先榮) prior to the initiation of the group.
He said that Fan refused to meet with him and his colleagues in March when they tried to solicit China’s support for humanitarian corridors amid Russia’s invasion of the nation, the magazine reported.
China’s indifference to Ukraine motivated the parliament to set up the group, he added.
After the group was launched, Fan complained to several senior members of the Servant of the People ruling party, but nobody put pressure on members of the group, Merezhko said.
Fan might be worried that Ukraine would send a delegation to Taiwan following the lead of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month, he said.
Ukrainian lawmaker Inna Sovsun, another member of the group and a long-term supporter of Taiwan, said that “China is worried Ukraine’s defense against Russia could become a model for Taiwanese resistance against China,” the magazine reported.
The biggest concern for Beijing is the similarity between Ukraine and Taiwan, as they are “two smaller countries fighting against colonialism,” she was quoted as saying.
She said that group members “coordinated the creation of the group through different layers of government” so as not to cause trouble for the executive.
The executive departments of foreign governments are likely to be constrained by diplomatic ties with Beijing or the “one China” policy, while legislative departments have more freedom to act, Newsweek said.
Analysts say that the Ukrainian government is hesitant to support Taiwan publicly because it does not want to see China taking Russia’s side in the war.
“I do not see the potential of the Chinese helping Ukraine. What we want from them is not to help Russia,” Sovsun was quoted by Newsweek as saying.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS