Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) cannot reverse the changes already occurring in international politics, a legislator said yesterday in response to China and Honduras formally establishing ties.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday announced that Beijing had established diplomatic relations with Tegucigalpa.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) said that he had held talks with Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina in Beijing, after which Reina signed a “joint communique,” establishing ties and recognizing that “there is only one China, of which the government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legitimate representative, and of which Taiwan is an inalienable part.”
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
China’s use of dollar diplomacy to poach Taiwan’s allies would not “reverse the changing trend in international politics and international relations,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said yesterday.
“The severance of diplomatic relations with Honduras was expected. Emperor Xi Jinping is now in his third term, and the humiliation of Taiwan was the big gift he needed,” she said.
“However, China’s efforts won’t change the fact that trends in international diplomacy are changing,” she added.
Taiwan is witnessing a changing pattern in its international relationships, which reflect the gradual blurring of traditional diplomatic boundaries, she said.
“Even without diplomatic relations, substantive exchanges and mutual visits are becoming very frequent,” she said.
This month alone, Taiwan welcomed Germany’s education minister, the speaker of the Czech House of Representatives, the former prime minister of Kosovo, a cross-party delegation of parliamentarians from the UK and a delegation from the Association of State Democratic Committees — a subcommittee of the US Democratic Party, she said.
“We can ask the government to engage in introspection, we can be angry at Honduras, but we must also stand up for Taiwan, and go out into the world and make friends,” she said.
New Power Party Chairwoman Claire Wang (王婉諭) condemned Beijing for repeatedly interfering with Taiwan’s diplomatic ties with other countries and maliciously oppressing Taiwan in the international community.
“As a member of the world’s democratic camp, we will not be shaken by Beijing’s deliberate isolation of Taiwan,” she said.
“On the contrary, we will stand straight and firm, and continue to have mutually beneficial exchanges and interactions with the international community,” she added.
Wang also urged former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to cancel his “ancestor-worshiping” trip to China today, despite claiming to have no plans to meet officials in Beijing.
“As the former commander-in-chief in Taiwan, Ma should cancel his trip to China to protest against Beijing snatching our allies,” she said.
“If Ma insists on visiting China and sends the wrong message to the international community, then he would be judged and scrutinized by Taiwanese people,” she added.
KMT caucus whip Tseng Ming-chung (曾銘宗) yesterday defended Ma, saying the trip had nothing to do with the severing of Taiwan-Honduras ties.
While China’s actions toward Taiwan should be condemned, Ma’s trip is to pay his respects to his ancestors on Tomb Sweeping Day, which is “in line with the government’s policy of promoting healthy exchanges,” Tseng said.
The trip was planned long in advance, and is not political in nature, as Ma would not meet with any Chinese officials, KMT Legislator Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞) said.
KMT Legislator Charles Chen (陳以信) also expressed support for the trip, saying “cross-strait non-governmental exchanges should not be affected” by political issues.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods