Pedestrians in Taipei, Taiwan: China claims the country for itself.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Eight MPs from all parties represented in the Bundestag want to travel to Taiwan at the end of October. According to information from the Handelsblatt, a corresponding application is to be approved by the Bundestag Presidium on Wednesday. With the trip, the parliamentarians want to send a sign of support to Taipei.
The Chinese leadership regards Taiwan as part of China’s territory, although the country has never been part of the People’s Republic founded in 1949 and has its own democratically elected government and laws.
At the beginning of August, a trip by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan caused severe irritation among the Chinese government. In response to the American politician’s visit, Beijing held military maneuvers in the region for days. China’s state and party leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that China and Taiwan should be “reunited”. He has repeatedly threatened violence if this unification cannot be achieved peacefully.
“Germany is the most important country in Europe for China,” said Michael Brand, human rights policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and spokesman for the human rights committee, to the Handelsblatt. “In this respect, we have a special responsibility not to duck away and to maintain relations with democratic countries that are under pressure from China.”
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It is not expected that the Chinese government will react nearly as violently to the trip by the members of the Bundestag as it did to Pelosi’s trip – even a few months ago, China only commented sharply on a trip by EU parliamentarians. Still, Brand wouldn’t let that stop him. “China is behaving more and more aggressively towards the outside world,” says Brand. “If you shy away for fear of a negative reaction from the Chinese side, that aggression will only spread.”
Federal government should set stronger accents in relation to Taiwan
During their visit to Taiwan from October 22-29, the MPs plan to meet representatives of the Taiwanese government, parliament, the opposition and representatives of civil society. Two parliamentarians are expected to travel from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and the SPD, and one from each of the Greens, the Left, the FDP and the AfD.
In addition to Taiwan, the MPs’ travel plans also include Japan and the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong. However, it is unlikely that Hong Kong will actually be headed for due to the still strict entry requirements in the metropolis.
The CDU politician Brand also calls on the federal government to set stronger accents with regard to Taiwan. “Taiwan is very important for the German economy because of its dominance in the chip industry, the Federal Minister of Economics should also travel to Taiwan,” says Brand. The FDP had already suggested that a representative of the federal government visit the island. The Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC accounts for more than half of the revenues of the ten largest chip contract manufacturers worldwide, as determined by the market research company Trendforce. For the time being, Taiwan cannot be replaced for the chip industry – and also for customers in Germany.
>> Also read here: Why the Taiwan conflict is so dangerous for the German economy
In principle, a visit by Economics Minister Robert Habeck or another representative of the federal government to Taiwan would be possible, although Germany does not recognize Taiwan as an independent state as part of its one-China policy and all other EU countries are also trying to avoid giving the impression that they officially recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state.
Part of the One China policy is also that certain officials from Taiwan do not travel to Europe and corresponding European officials do not travel to Taiwan. However, according to a report by the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), these only include the heads of state and government, the vice president and the foreign and defense ministers. In the case of Germany, the speaker of the parliament and the chief judge should not travel to Taiwan either.
At the end of August, the parliamentary state secretary to the Federal Minister of Economics, Franziska Brantner, took part in an economic round table with German and Taiwanese business representatives and held economic policy consultations with representatives of Taiwan.
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