The EU’s executive branch on Tuesday said that "China's military activities around Taiwan increase cross-strait tensions" and echoed Washington and Taipei's stance that the 1971 UN resolution Beijing uses to claim sovereignty over Taiwan requires clarification.
European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit delivered a speech titled "On the misinterpretation of the UN Resolution 2758 and its continuous military provocations around Taiwan" at a European Parliament session.
In the speech, the EU official reiterated the regional bloc's long-held "one China" policy, which recognizes the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the sole legal government of China.
Photo: EPA
Despite this policy, the official — speaking on behalf of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell — said the EU and Taiwan are "like-minded" and the European Commission opposes "any unilateral actions that change the status quo by force or coercion."
The European commissioner also reiterated the EU's stance that maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are of "strategic importance for regional and global security and prosperity."
"It is for this reason that we follow very closely all developments around the Taiwan Strait. China's military activities around Taiwan increase cross-strait tensions," he said, referring to China's routine warship and aircraft operations around Taiwan as well as its large-scale military exercises that encircle the island, most recently on Monday last week.
Schmit reiterated the EU's stance that urges both sides of the Taiwan Strait to "exercise restraint and avoid any actions that may further escalate cross-strait tensions, which should be resolved through dialogue."
Meanwhile, for the first time, the European Commission official mentioned China's interpretation of UN Resolution 2758.
"United Nations Resolution 2758 is very short — only 150 words," Schmit said. "And among those 150 words, the word 'Taiwan' does not appear."
"The resolution switched representation in the United Nations from the 'representatives of Chiang Kai-shek' to the 'representatives of the Government of the People's Republic of China,'" he said, referring to the then-president of the Republic of China whose nationalist government relocated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to the communists.
"I welcome the European Parliament's focus on this issue and this important debate. We should take all opportunities to promote a more positive dynamic in cross-Strait relations, which contributes to peace, not only in the region, but also globally," Schmit said.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Schmit's address is significant because it is the first time the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, has "expressed its view" on the issue.
The European Parliament has already passed several resolutions criticizing China's "misinterpretation" of UN Resolution 2758.
In a statement, MOFA called on more countries around the world to join the EU and the US in addressing Beijing's "misinterpretation of the resolution" to uphold peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Adopted by the 26th UN General Assembly in 1971, Resolution 2758 resulted in Taiwan losing its seat at the UN to the PRC.
Taiwan has since been prevented from joining the UN and participating in affiliated organizations.
However, in recent years, Taiwan and the US have called on the international community to face the issue of the PRC's "distortion" of Resolution 2758 as an excuse to claim sovereignty over Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the PRC.
During the recently concluded 79th session of the UN General Assembly, Taiwan said it intends to help the international community better understand Resolution 2758 this year so that Beijing can no longer "misuse" it to exclude Taiwan from the UN system.
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