Bundestag delegation pledges aid to Taiwan

According to German parliamentarians, China’s threats to Taiwan are unacceptable. At Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s reception of the Bundestag delegation in Taipei on Monday, the head of the parliamentary group, Klaus-Peter Willsch, compared the situation to Russia’s actions against Ukraine.

“We do not find it acceptable for you to be threatened by a neighbor,” Willsch told the President in the Bundestag several times.

Taiwan should not be forced into “unwanted cooperation” with military force. The CDU politician said the Bundestag “clearly rejects it”.

The meeting of the six lawmakers with the President was the culmination of the Bundestag delegation’s first visit to Taiwan since the outbreak of the pandemic at the end of 2019. Meetings with Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and Speaker of Parliament You Si-kun are also scheduled.

The visit causes serious disturbances in German-Chinese relations. “Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory,” said a foreign ministry spokesperson in Beijing. The government of the People’s Republic is the only legitimate government in all of China. Lawmakers should adhere to the “one China principle” and “immediately” stop their interactions with “separatist pro-independence forces” in Taiwan.

The Chinese leadership considers the democratic island state to be part of the People’s Republic and categorically rejects such official contacts with Taipei from other countries. Taiwan has long considered itself independent. Tensions had intensified recently.

In response to the visit of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in early August, China launched large-scale maneuvers. The threatened conquest of the island was also practiced. The People’s Liberation Army continued the pressure with increased deployments of warships and aircraft near Taiwan.

Taiwan’s president accused China of “disrupting the regional order” with military maneuvers. Tsai Ing-wen thanked Germany for its support during his presidency of the Big Seven Industrial Countries Group (G7). In the face of the “expansion of autocratism,” democracies must unite to defend their democratic values.

CDU politician Willsch stressed that the Taiwanese people can be proud of what they have built: “A functioning democracy, a beacon of freedom in Asia.” Taiwan is living proof that “the Chinese also live in democracy and can shape it well”.

Added to this is economic success: Taiwan is Germany’s fifth largest trading partner in Asia. “The whole world is screaming for digitization, but how are we going to achieve this without semiconductors made in Taiwan,” said Willsch.

After a visit by French parliamentarians in early September, the “Berlin-Taipei Friendship Circle” became the second parliamentary delegation from a major EU member to visit Taiwan. The Bundestag Human Rights Committee is also planning a visit at the end of October. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raises concerns that China might do something similar against Taiwan.