Taiwanese lawmakers have been invited to join the Indo-Pacific Forum, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) said on Monday.
The IPAC — founded by China skeptics from the legislatures of democracies including Australia, India, Japan and New Zealand — announced the forum’s launch in a statement on its Web site.
The event would be the first inter-parliamentary forum of its kind to specifically tackle the “challenges posed by the intensifying dynamics in the region,” it said, adding that lawmakers from Taiwan, South Korea, Pacific island nations, Europe and other partners have been invited.
The forum would promote IPAC’s 2050 Strategy for a “Pacific Blue Continent,” which emphasizes international coordination in security matters that affect members of the region, the lawmakers said.
“Bilateral security agreements like that with the Solomon Islands apply a divide and conquer approach to the Pacific, which diminishes, not enhances, regional stability,” the lawmakers said, referring to an agreement that Honiara signed with Beijing.
The lawmakers expressed deep concern with Beijing’s actions in the past few years that have “inflamed border disputes with its neighbors and directed regular military threats against Taiwan, setting a worrying precedent for its role in the Pacific islands.”
Pacific nations were urged to continue the Talanoa Dialogue on climate change and make no new bilateral arrangements before discussing issues of mutual concern with other participants, they said.
“The IPAC Indo-Pacific Forum is [a] welcome opportunity to strengthen existing bonds between legislators and also create new relationships,” New Zealand Member of Parliament Simon O’Connor said.
“While we are representing different countries, many of our issues are the same, including concerns around an expansionary China,” O’Connor said.
IPAC describes itself as an organization of international lawmakers dedicated to reforming their countries’ China policy, especially with regard to upholding the rules-based international order, human rights, trade fairness, security and national integrity.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese