A delegation from the German Bundestag’s Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid arrived in Taiwan yesterday on a four-day visit to discuss human rights issues with local officials and academics.
The delegation, led by German lawmaker Peter Heidt of the Free Democratic Party, was welcomed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) and German Institute Taipei Director-General Jorg Polster at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
The delegation also includes German lawmakers Heike Engelhardt and Derya Turk-Nachbaur of the Social Democratic Party, Michael Brand and Carsten Brodesser of the Christian Democratic Union, and Boris Mijatovic from the Greens.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The visit is the second by German lawmakers this month, following a seven-member delegation to Taipei from Oct. 2 to 6 headed by German-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group Chairman Klaus-Peter Willsch.
The human rights delegation is scheduled to meet President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and National Human Rights Commission Chairperson Chen Chu (陳菊), the ministry said.
The delegation is to visit the National Human Rights Museum and discuss cooperation with local non-governmental organizations and think tanks, it added.
The trip is meant to learn firsthand about the “tense security situation” in Taiwan and to express the delegation’s stance that it would not accept “a larger neighbor attacking its smaller neighbor in violation of international law,” Heidt said in Berlin last week.
Germany must overcome its economic reliance on China, he added.
Heidt said that Taiwan is known for its economic prosperity and its chip production.
“No iPhone in the world would work without Taiwan’s [semiconductor] industry,” Heidt said. “In other words, Taiwan’s independence is also very important to us for economic reasons.”
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
Recent movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been “highly unusual,” but the military maintains a grasp of the situation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Friday, after the military for the first time said it was monitoring troop movements in China’s Dacheng Bay (大埕灣). The minister gave the remarks to reporters before appearing at the legislature on the first day of its new session. The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday evening released an air force surveillance photograph of a PLA Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and said it was monitoring the PLA Rocket Force and ground
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for