The “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait must not be changed unilaterally, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) said on Wednesday at the conclusion of its annual meeting in Washington, expressing support for Taiwan.
The communique declared that IPAC would continue to jointly defend peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as well as Taiwan’s economic and trade security, through the legislative bodies of its member countries.
More than 60 parliamentarians from different countries attended this year’s meeting and passed the communique without objection at its conclusion.
Photo: CNA
The meeting also included a session on strengthening democratic support for Taiwan, which was attended by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲), New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) and independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐).
“If, in fact, the Chinese Communist Party is successful in subjecting the people of Taiwan to living under tyranny, it will be a moment that will steer the course of human events for generations,” US Senator Marco Rubio, an IPAC cochair, said during the meeting.
The communique also discussed human rights, defense of the rules-based global order, the political situation in Hong Kong, the strengthening of democracy worldwide and support for Ukraine.
The communique condemned China’s military exercises near Taiwan and its coercive military threats. It called on countries worldwide to oppose China’s tactics in the Strait, to promote state visits to Taiwan and upgrade the status of the country’s missions abroad.
It also called for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, Interpol, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and other international covenants and organizations.
The communique also called on governments of all countries to convey to China that military aggression against Taiwan would come at a heavy price, and to consider substantive sanctions in response to military escalation by China.
Countries should make good use of intergovernmental mechanisms to curb economic coercion by China, and to ensure continued relations with Taiwan, it said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday in a statement said that Taiwan would continue to work with IPAC and other like-minded international partners to jointly maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, and to defend the core values shared by global democracies.
IPAC is an international cross-party group of legislators working to develop policies that democratic countries can follow in their approach to China, according to the alliance’s Web site.
Its current members include cross-party legislators from the European Parliament, the US, the UK, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Australia, Belgium, Canada, India, Italy, Japan, Lithuania and Ukraine, among others.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
CONCESSION: A Shin Kong official said that the firm was ‘willing to contribute’ to the nation, as the move would enable Nvidia Crop to build its headquarters in Taiwan Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday said it would relinquish land-use rights, or known as surface rights, for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), paving the way for Nvidia Corp to expand its office footprint in Taiwan. The insurer said it made the decision “in the interest of the nation’s greater good” and would not seek compensation from taxpayers for potential future losses, calling the move a gesture to resolve a months-long impasse among the insurer, the Taipei City Government and the US chip giant. “The decision was made on the condition that the Taipei City Government reimburses the related
African swine fever was confirmed at a pig farm in Taichung, the Ministry of Agriculture said today, prompting a five-day nationwide ban on transporting and slaughtering pigs, and marking the loss of Taiwan’s status as the only Asian nation free of all three major swine diseases. The ministry held a news conference today confirming that the virus was detected at a farm in Wuci District (梧棲) yesterday evening. Authorities preemptively culled 195 pigs at the farm at about 3am and disinfected the entire site to prevent the disease from spreading, the ministry said. Authorities also set up a 3km-radius control zone
RSS