The head of a Taiwan friendship group in the Lithuanian parliament plans to organize a “strong delegation” made up of ruling and opposition lawmakers to visit Taiwan to learn how the nations can cooperate and create “win-win” scenarios for each other, he said.
“I want to have a strong delegation, especially for the first visit, and we are working to have a delegation with people who have different views, even from the opposition, for the people to see in reality how Lithuania and Taiwan can cooperate and create a win-win situation for both sides,” Lithuanian Member of Parliament Matas Maldeikis said in an interview with the Central News Agency.
Maldeikis, who is chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Relations with Taiwan, was discussing a planned visit for the first week of December that would include six lawmakers from the Baltic state.
Photo courtesy of Matas Maldeikis via CNA
The visit follows an invitation from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉).
Chiu, who heads the Lithuanian friendship group in the Legislative Yuan, on Aug. 23 said that he had invited several Lithuanian lawmakers to visit Taiwan when the COVID-19 pandemic eases.
Maldeikis said the delegation would participate in a conference on democracy at the Legislative Yuan.
The trip comes as Lithuania faces increasing pressure from Beijing after its decision to open reciprocal representative offices with Taiwan and allowing Taipei’s office in Vilnius to be named the “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania.”
The name differs from the “Taipei Economic and Cultural Office” or “Taipei Representative Office” used in countries with which Taiwan does not have diplomatic relations, likely as the host nations hope to avoid any semblance of treating Taiwan as a country to maintain relations with China.
In response, Beijing has sought to impose a political cost on Lithuania for its decision.
In addition to recalling its ambassador from Vilnius and expelling the Lithuanian ambassador from Beijing, China has introduced retaliatory sanctions, including the suspension of direct freight train services to Lithuania.
Maldeikis, 41, said he understands why Lithuania’s business community is angry about the government’s policy on China.
After the country lost access to the Russian market, its government encouraged businesses to look toward China instead, Maldeikis said.
“And now we have this position about democracy and being with Taiwan. Of course we read the anger, but it’s not about Taiwan as it is, they are saying: ‘Look, the government changes and the foreign policy changes, and we are losing our businesses.’ We understand and are working on that,” he said.
The China market for exports is also not that big for Lithuania, accounting for about 1 percent of total experts, he added.
More importantly, countries around the world have begun to realize that political factors are involved once they do business with China, Maldeikis said.
“That means you can’t be a sovereign country. Australia learned that the hard way, we are starting to learn that. We understand after so many years with Russia if you are losing sovereignty for a market, you will lose both,” he said.
Asked why he decided to head the Taiwan friendship group, Maldeikis said his goal is simple: It is not only about helping Taiwan, but more about safeguarding his country’s interests and security.
“It is better to have 23 million very good friends than one-and-a-half billion not good friends, and a market which you can get in and you are nothing to them,” he said.
“They don’t care about you and if anything, they will sell you for nothing. So I’m looking out for my country’s interests, and if that helps Taiwan, that’s very good,” he added.
His ultimate goal is for Lithuania to have less investment in and from China, and he wants Lithuania and Taiwanese businesses working closely so that one day the scale of bilateral cooperation would be bigger than that of China, he said.
“That could be the biggest step we can make, a very practical, and very good example for the whole of Europe. Because we are like an incubator to show to different European countries what can be done, if you would like to cooperate with Taiwan as closely as possible. We can be an example for the whole of Europe,” he said.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is