A delegation of German Free Democratic Party (FDP) lawmakers led by German Bundestag Committee on Defense Chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann and party deputy chair Johannes Vogel arrived in Taiwan yesterday.
The visit is a gesture of German “solidarity” with Taiwan, they said.
Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) hosted a banquet to welcome the delegation.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Photojournalist Society
“As a model of democracy against authoritarianism, Taiwan draws admiration from the world” because of its mature and stable democratic system,” Vogel said.
The FDP is a junior partner in Germany’s coalition government.
Vogel said that Taiwan’s peaceful and smooth transition to democracy was a “quite rare” event worthy of admiration.
The situation between Taiwan and China is complicated, and the FDP and the EU must support the “one China” policy, but the party is nonetheless supportive of Taiwan, he said.
Germany would like to send China a message that military intimidation is not acceptable, he said, adding that the trip is to “demonstrate Germany’s massive support for Taiwan.”
You said he was touched when the FDP in 2021 deleted mention of the “one China” policy from its election platform in an effort to support Taiwan.
Germany and the EU should engage with Taiwan more, he said.
You said he hopes that allies support Taiwan’s resistance against aggression and bullying, safeguard global peace and stability, and work to encourage China’s democratization.
German Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger, also of the FDP, plans to visit Taipei in the spring, Agence France-Presse reported.
It would be the first visit by a member of the German Cabinet in 26 years.
The delegation is to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other senior officials, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The members are scheduled to visit the Hsinchu Science Park and the National Human Rights Museum before departing on Thursday.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday criticized the visit.
“The root of the Taiwan problem is precisely that of the law of the jungle — hegemonism, colonialism, militarism and nationalism. China suffered deeply from these behaviors throughout history,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told a news conference.
“Germany once experienced a profound and painful historical lesson in this regard,” he added.
Separately, a parliamentary delegation from Lithuania arrived in Taiwan yesterday morning.
Lithuanian Parliamentary Group for Relations with Taiwan vice chair Dovile Sakaliene on Sunday said on Facebook that Lithuania and Taiwan would discuss cybersecurity and geopolitical security challenges.
The invasion of Ukraine showed that the threats Lithuania and Taiwan face are real, and the two countries should “learn, unite, and act now,” she said.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS