Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday.
There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected.
Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the position that the two sides could not “stand together” regarding their formal ties with other countries.
Taiwan is resisting China’s attempts to isolate the nation by becoming an important economic, cultural and technological partner of Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, in the fields of economics, culture and technology, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui (俞大?) told the Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae.
Taiwan would not ask other countries to sever diplomatic ties with China, but rather welcomes the idea of forming relations with both countries, Yui said.
Countries should consider whether Beijing’s Taiwan exclusion demand is reasonable, he added.
“We will not rule out any possibility,” Wu said when asked on Sunday whether the ministry encourages dual recognition.
If any country wants to bolster relations with Taiwan, whether in politics, diplomacy, culture or trade, Taipei would not consider their relations with Beijing as a factor, he said.
China’s suppression of Taiwan’s global participation “is not just toward a political party or certain people, but a problem for our country,” Wu said.
The government is working to expand Taiwan’s “breathing room” internationally, such as with a group of Czech lawmakers visiting Taiwan this week, he added.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said Wu’s remark would result in more diplomatic losses, as accepting dual recognition “creates ambiguity.”
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
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About 3,000 people gathered at events in Taipei yesterday for an annual candlelight vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, a brutal crackdown by Chinese authorities on a student-led demonstration in Beijing on June 4 36 years ago. A candlelight vigil organized by the New School for Democracy and other human rights groups began at 7pm on Democracy Boulevard outside Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, with the theme "Resist Transnational Repression, Defy Totalitarianism." At about 8pm, organizers announced that about 3,000 people had attended the event, which featured brief speeches by human rights advocates from Taiwan and China, including Hong Kong, as well
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