Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin on Tuesday called on China to avoid escalation over Taiwan, where Beijing has responded to visits from former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi and other US lawmakers with military drills around the nation.
“Any attempt to change the status quo by force would not be acceptable,” Martin said, adding that Ireland continues to respect the “one China” policy.
Martin also criticized China on human rights and its stance over Russia’s war in Ukraine, and rejected the idea that Europe is being squeezed between Beijing and Washington.
In comments that clashed with French President Emmanuel Macron’s call last month for Europe to avoid being dragged into a conflict between China and the US over Taiwan, Martin underscored a divide between the worldviews of China and Europe.
While he said Dublin would continue to work “constructively” with the world’s second-largest economy, he vowed to pursue the values of human rights laid out in the UN Charter and to voice opposition “when we see evidence of those core principles being undermined.”
“There is much chatter about US-China competition, and about the need for the EU to avoid being squeezed between these two hegemons, to build and main[tain] its ‘strategic autonomy,’” Martin, who is also Ireland’s deputy prime minister, said in a speech in Dublin. “I disagree with this framing.”
Martin said Ireland would continue to maintain robust trade ties with China, while also working to address climate change, pursue sustainable development and human rights, and building a global trading and investment system.
However, he laid into Beijing for failing to acknowledge that Russia started the war in Ukraine and urged it to use its “considerable influence” to end the invasion.
He also targeted China’s record on human rights, citing a UN report that noted the “arbitrary and discriminatory detention of the Uighur and other predominantly Muslim groups” in China’s Xinjiang region.
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