A group of French lawmakers landed in Taiwan yesterday, the first high-level European delegation since China conducted huge war drills in the wake of a visit to the nation by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The trip came as Taiwan held two days of live-fire drills in Pingtung County.
Beijing has lashed out at any diplomatic action that might lend Taiwan legitimacy, and has responded with growing anger to visits by Western officials and politicians.
Photo: CNA
The group of five lawmakers is led by French Senator Cyril Pellevat, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, adding that it was the fourth visit by French politicians in the past 12 months.
Last month, China sent warships, missiles and fighter jets into the waters and skies around Taiwan in a show of opposition to Pelosi’s presence — its largest and most aggressive exercises since the mid-1990s.
Pelosi, a veteran Beijing critic, was the most senior US politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years. She was followed by multiple separate US delegations last month.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
China’s exercises triggered widespread support in the US for solidarity with Taiwan, which already has rare bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.
Many European powers have also grown more vocal in support of Taiwan in the past few years, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has deepened fears that China might do the same to Taiwan.
Politicians from European countries regularly visit the nation.
Beijing has adopted an increasingly bellicose approach to Taiwan under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the country’s most authoritarian leader in a generation.
Xi, who is on the cusp of securing an unprecedented third term, has hitched Taiwan’s fate to his landmark “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” policy.
Like most nations, the US and France officially recognize Beijing over Taipei, but they remain key allies of Taiwan and maintain de facto diplomatic ties with the nation.
Washington’s official policy opposes Taiwan declaring independence and China forcibly changing the Taiwan’s status.
On Tuesday, Taiwanese troops carried out dramatic nighttime live-fire drills, with tanks illuminated by sudden flashes of flame as they fired shells while tracer rounds arced across the night sky.
“We will prepare for war, but will not seek war,” Huang Jing-feng, a battalion commander, told reporters. “We will carry on training to elevate each soldier’s combat skills.”
The drills continued yesterday, with tanks, combat helicopters and mobile missile launchers conducting firing exercises.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS