A visiting German lawmaker yesterday told President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that his nation is opposed to changing the cross-trait “status quo” by unilateral or non-peaceful means.
Peter Heidt of the Free Democratic Party is leading a six-member delegation from the Bundestag’s Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid to Taiwan.
Other members of the delegation are Heike Engelhardt and Derya Turk-Nachbaur of the Social Democratic Party, Michael Brand and Carsten Brodesser of the Christian Democratic Union, and Boris Mijatovic of the Greens.
Photo: Wang Yu-ching, EPA-EFE
Berlin firmly opposes “changing the cross-strait status quo via means other than peaceful ones and without mutual consent,” Heidt said during a meeting with Tsai in Taipei.
The delegation wants to obtain first-hand insight into how Taiwan is responding to increasing Chinese military coercion, as well as the role of human rights in Taipei’s response, he said.
Heidt also called for the abolition of capital punishment in Taiwan, describing the practice as inhumane “not only to death-row inmates, but to judges and executioners too.”
Photo: CNA
Taiwan last carried out an execution in 2020 and has 38 inmates on death row.
Tsai thanked Germany for overseeing the issuance of joint statements by the leaders and foreign ministers of the G7 in support of Taiwan.
Germany currently holds the G7’s rotating presidency.
Tsai said that the group’s public statements showed concern for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
The delegation is the second from Germany to visit Taiwan this month, following a visit from Oct. 2 to 6 by a seven-member delegation led by German-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group chairman Klaus-Peter Willsch.
Earlier yesterday, Kenneth Wollack, chairman of the US-based National Endowment for Democracy, said that Taiwan’s democracy is a model for the world amid the rise of authoritarianism internationally.
Wollack made the remarks during a meeting with Tsai at the Presidential Office in Taipei.
Praising Taiwan’s commitment to advancing freedom, Wollack said that the nation also demonstrated that “in a world of strongmen, a strong woman could lead a democracy.”
“We recognize that this is a young democracy that emerged after nearly four decades of martial law. Despite continuing internal and external challenges, this is not a place where democracy is in peril,” he said.
Taiwan’s democracy is a tool for stability and prosperity that binds its citizens together, he added.
Wollack is leading a delegation of pro-democracy advocates to attend the 11th Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy to be held in Taipei from today to Thursday.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
The government-funded human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is to be expanded to boys at junior-high school starting in September, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. The Taiwan Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Taiwan Immunization Vision and Strategy, the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan, the Taiwan Head and Neck Society, the Formosa Cancer Foundation and the National Alliance of Presidents of Parents Associations held a joint news conference in Taipei yesterday to raise public awareness about the risks of HPV infection, regardless of gender. Invited to give an address, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun
RSS