The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed the EU’s support for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) on Thursday.
In a post-summit news conference, the EU said it adheres to the “one China” policy, but is concerned about the rising volatility across the Taiwan Strait.
Photo: Taipei Times
It said that instability in the East China Sea and South China Sea poses a threat to regional and global prosperity and security.
In Taipei, MOFA spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said that the European External Action Service (EEAS) and other EU bodies have raised concerns three times since May regarding Chinese military exercises around Taiwan, and emphasized that the stability of the Taiwan Strait directly impacts the EU’s interests.
Hsiao also quoted the March 19 White Paper for European Defence — Readiness 2030 that “China is intensifying its political, economic, military, cyber and cognitive measures to coerce Taiwan ... The shifting Taiwan status quo raises the risk of a major disruption, which would have profound economic and strategic consequences for Europe.”
MOFA welcomes the EU’s continued urging for China to maintain the “status quo” and refrain from unilaterally altering it via threat of force, Hsiao said, adding that Taiwan would continue to work with like-minded EU partners to foster peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
Separately, MOFA thanked the 72 members of Israel’s Knesset who jointly signed a statement supporting Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The statement also affirmed Taiwan’s significant contributions to global public health, medicine, the environment and aviation security.
The statement was delivered to Representative to Israel Abby Lee (李雅萍) by Israel-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association chairman Boaz Toporovsky on Wednesday.
Toporovsky on Thursday wrote on social media that “Taiwan stands with Israel — it’s time we stand with Taiwan,” citing Taiwan’s support for Israel, especially since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
“This is not just a symbolic gesture — it’s about values, morality, and global partnership,” Toporovsky said.
“The future belongs to democracies that work together — not to those that exclude. Taiwan is one of them,” he added.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS