Visiting German Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger yesterday said that “professional exchanges” were the focus of her trip to Taiwan, not China.
Amid criticism from Beijing, the minister told reporters in Taipei that her visit was in line with Berlin’s China policy, adding that she expected it to be “transparent and professional with no surprises.”
Stark-Watzinger said she had consulted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the nation’s foreign minister before her visit.
Photo: AP
“Our focus is professional exchanges and the issue of China is not the topic here,” she said.
The first German federal minister to visit Taipei since 1997 said that while such trips could become “routine,” the decision on whether to travel to Taiwan would be for individual ministers to decide.
Germany and Taiwan face similar challenges with regard to a brain drain in the semiconductor field, she said, adding that regular exchanges with a partner that shares the same values of democracy and the rule of law are a must.
Photo: Annabelle Chih, Reuters
Stark-Watzinger’s 14-member delegation earlier yesterday met with Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) to exchange views on Chinese-language education and academic semiconductor institutions.
The two discussed cooperation in Chinese-language education, including inviting German officials to Taiwan for language training and subsidizing Taiwanese teachers’ stay in Germany, the Ministry of Education said.
On Tuesday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) expressed Beijing’s “strong disapproval” of Stark-Watzinger’s “reprehensible” act of visiting Taipei.
“We call on the German side to respect the ‘one China’ principle, immediately stop interacting and sending the wrong signals to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces,” Wang said.
German Minister of Finance Christian Lindner yesterday wrote on Twitter that the creeping loss of democracy and freedom worldwide must not be the price for cooperating with China.
That is why Stark-Watzinger’s engagement on the issue deserves respect, he wrote, with a link to an announcement about the opening of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom’s hub in Taipei.
Separately yesterday, visiting British lawmaker Bob Stewart said that the UK should provide Taiwan with as much help as possible to defend itself.
Speaking at a news conference in Taipei, the cochair of the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group confirmed that issues related to the UK providing Taiwan with equipment for its indigenous defense submarine program were covered when they met with National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄).
“It came up, in part,” Stewart said.
Stewart would not reveal details of the conversation, but said the message the delegation would take back to the British parliament is that “we should assist Taiwan in its defense as much as possible.”
Reuters published a report on Monday last week saying that the value of licenses the British government granted to companies for the export of submarine-
related components and technology to Taiwan totaled a record ￡167 million (US$205 million) during the first nine months of last year, more than the previous six years combined.
Asked about the report, Stewart said he “fully supports the idea.”
He did not elaborate, saying he is not part of the government.
In his opening remarks, Stewart praised Taiwan for its democratic development.
“What you have achieved in this country over 30 years is nothing more than miraculous, 30 years and you are now rated higher in democratic values than a country like my own which has had 800 years and still we can’t get it right,” he said.
The six-member British parliamentary group he is leading arrived in Taiwan on Sunday for a six-day visit.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
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
RSS