Switzerland has criticized Beijing over the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) naval drills in the waters off Taiwan and Australia in a rare act of taking a stance on international affairs.
Switzerland on Thursday last week sent the Chinese government and its embassy notice that its actions increased the risk of miscalculations that could escalate regional tensions, Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis, who heads the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, told lawmakers on Monday.
The message is part of Switzerland’s efforts to maintain calm and encourage dialogue in East Asia and the South China Sea, he said.
Photo: AFP
Cassis communicated with China in response to a question posed by Federal Assembly member Jean-Luc Addor asking if Switzerland had commented on the Chinese drills that had increased the risk of war in a crucial region to Swiss economic and commercial interests.
Addor, who is a member of the Switzerland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, criticized China during a legislative session, saying that Beijing’s norm-breaking behavior risked accidentally igniting a large-scale military conflict.
A source familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that Switzerland is typically reticent about ongoing or potential foreign conflicts due to the nation’s neutrality.
For Switzerland’s top foreign affairs official to break tradition on this matter is a clear indication that maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait is of great concern to the international community, the source said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS