Politics

German delegation calls for peaceful resolution to Taiwan-China relations

Beijing, Oct 24 (EFE).- The leader of a German delegation of parliamentarians visiting Taiwan urged for a peaceful resolution to the island’s relations with China during a meeting with Taiwan’s president on Monday.

The German delegation from the Bundestag’s committee on human rights and humanitarian aid to Taiwan, headed by Peter Heidt, arrived in Taipei on Sunday and will be there for four days for the group’s second visit to Taiwan this month.

During Heidt’s meeting with president Tsai Ing-wen the Berlin representative said his country opposed “changing the cross-strait status quo via means other than peaceful ones and without mutual consent,” the Focus Taiwan news outlet reported.

During the four-day trip, the multi-party delegation will be gaining insight into how Taiwan is responding to increased pressure from Beijing and is expected to also meet with foreign minister Joseph Wu, the Taiwanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

The previous visit by German parliamentarians, the first since the start of the pandemic, was led by the president of the Germany-Taiwan parliamentary friendship group, Klaus-Peter Willsch.

The meetings come after the speaker of the United States house of representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited in August.

The fleeting passage of the Democrat, third in line to the US presidency, sparked the anger of China and flared tensions between Washington and Beijing, which described the trip as a “farce” and “deplorable betrayal.”

China responded by slapping sanctions on Pelosi, suspending dialogue with the US and by deploying unprecedented military maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait.

In his speech opening the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping alluded to “separatist activities aimed at ‘Taiwan independence'” and “gross provocations of external interference in Taiwan affairs.”

“We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary,” Xi said.

“Complete reunification of our country must be realized, and it can, without doubt, be realized!” Xi continued as attendees erupted in applause.

Tsai’s presidential office reiterated that Taiwan is a “democratic and sovereign” country and said that the Taiwanese people “clearly reject the one country, two systems” model, currently in force in the semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong, that Beijing would apply if reunification were to be achieved.

China claims sovereignty over the island, which it considers a rebel province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew to the island in 1949, after losing the civil war against the communists. EFE

gbm/ch/aef

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