Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he would increase security at G7 meetings taking place in his country, a day after a man threw a smoke bomb at him at a campaign event.
Kishida was campaigning Saturday ahead of next week’s by-elections for the Japanese parliament when an explosive device was hurled toward him. Footage on Twitter appeared to show a bodyguard kicking a smoke bomb away from the prime minister and bundling him away, after the device landed near them. A 24-year-old man was arrested at the scene.
Japan will host the leaders of the Group of Seven most industrialized nations at a summit in Hiroshima next month.
On Sunday, speaking after emerging unscathed from the smoke bomb incident, CNN quoted Kishida as saying: “Japan as a whole must strive to provide maximum security during the dates of the summit and other gatherings of dignitaries from around the world.”
G7 foreign ministers are meeting Sunday for a three-day conference in Karuizawa, where they are expected to discuss China’s aggression toward Taiwan, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and North Korea’s missile testing. G7 climate ministers, meanwhile, are completing a two-day meeting in Sapporo.
The Kishida incident had eerie echoes of the shocking assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last July.
LONDON — Former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss will take a not-so-subtle swipe at Emmanuel Macron over his attempt to build bridges with Beijing.
In a Wednesday morning speech to the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C. Truss will argue that too many in the West have “appeased and accommodated” authoritarian regimes in China and Russia.
And she will say it is a “sign of weakness” for Western leaders to visit China and ask premier Xi Jinping for his support in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — just days after Macron’s own high-profile trip there.
While Truss — who left office after just six weeks as crisis-hit U.K. prime minister — will not mention Macron by name, her comments follow an interview with POLITICO in which the French president said Europe should resist pressure to become “America’s followers.”
Macron said: “The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction.”
Macron has already been criticized for those comments by the IPAC group of China-skeptic lawmakers, which said Monday his remarks were “ill-judged.”
And Truss — who had a frosty relationship with Macron during her brief stint in office last year — will use her speech to urge a more aggressive stance toward both China and Russia.
“We’ve seen Vladimir Putin launching an unprovoked attack on a free and democratic neighbor, we see the Chinese building up their armaments and their arsenal and menacing the free and democratic Taiwan,” Truss will say according to pre-released remarks. “Too many in the West have appeased and accommodated these regimes.”
She will add: “Western leaders visiting President Xi to ask for his support in ending the war is a mistake — and it is a sign of weakness. Instead our energies should go into taking more measures to support Taiwan. We need to make sure Taiwan is able to defend itself.”
Relations between Macron and Truss’ successor Rishi Sunak have been notably warmer. The pair hailed a “new chapter” in U.K.-France ties in March, after concluding a deal on cross-Channel migration.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Stop driving Europe away from the United States, dismayed central and eastern European officials fumed on Tuesday as French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments continued to ripple across the Continent.
Macron jolted allies in the EU’s eastern half after a visit to China last week when he cautioned the Continent against getting pulled into a U.S.-China dispute over Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own, imploring his neighbors to avoid becoming Washington and Beijing’s “vassals.”
The comments rattled those near the EU’s eastern edge, who have historically favored closer ties with the Americans — especially on defense — and pushed for a hasher approach to Beijing.
“Instead of building strategic autonomy from the United States, I propose a strategic partnership with the United States,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Tuesday before flying off to the U.S., of all places, for a three-day visit.
Privately, diplomats were even franker.
“We cannot understand [Macron’s] position on transatlantic relations during these very challenging times,” said one diplomat from an Eastern European country, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely express themselves. “We, as the EU, should be united. Unfortunately, this visit and French remarks following it are not helpful.”
The reactions reflect the long-simmering divisions within Europe over how to best defend itself. Macron has long argued for Europe to become more autonomous economically and militarily — a push many in Central and Eastern Europe fear could alienate a valuable U.S. helping keep Russia at bay, even if they support boosting the EU’s ability to act independently.
“In the current world of geopolitical shifts, and especially in the face of Russia’s war against Ukraine, it is obvious that democracies have to work closer together than ever before,” said another senior diplomat from Eastern Europe. “We should be all reminded of the wisdom of the first U.S ambassador to France Benjamin Franklin who rightly remarked that either we stick together or we will be hanged separately.”
Macron, a third senior diplomat from the same region huffed, was freelancing yet again: “It is not the first time that Macron has expressed views that are his own and do not represent the EU’s position.”
Walking into controversy
In his interview, Macron touched on a tense subject within Europe: how it should balance itself against the superpower fight between the U.S. and China.
The French president encouraged Europe to chart its own course, cautioning that Europe faces a “great risk” if it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy.”
Macron said he wants Europe to become a “third pole” to counterbalance China and the U.S. in the long term | Pool photo by Jacques Witt/AFP via Getty Images
It’s a stance that has many adherents within Europe — and has even worked its way into official EU policy as officials work to slowly ensure the Continent’s supply lines aren’t fully yoked to China and others on everything from weapons to electric vehicles.
Macron said he wants Europe to become a “third pole” to counterbalance China and the U.S. in the long term. An imminent conflict between Being and Washington, he argued, would put that goal at risk.
Yet out east, officials lamented that the French leader was simply treating the U.S. and China as if they were essentially the same in a global power play.
The comments, the second diplomat said, were “both ill-timed and inappropriate to put both the United States and China on a par and suggest that the EU should keep strategic distance to both of them.”
A Central European diplomat flatly dismissed Macron’s stance as “pretty outrageous,” while another official from the same region chalked it up to an attempt “to distract from other problems and show that France is bigger than what it is” — a reference to the protests roiling France amid Macron’s pension reforms.
The frustration in Central and Eastern Europe stems in part from a feeling that the French president has never made clear who would replace Washington in Europe — especially if Russia expands its war beyond Ukraine, said Kristi Raik, head of the foreign policy program at the International Centre for Defence and Security, a think tank in Estonia, a country of about 1.3 million people that borders Russia.
It’s an emotional point for Europe’s eastern half, where memories of the Soviet era linger.
“We hear Macron talking about European strategic autonomy, and somehow just being completely silent about the issue, which has become so clear in Ukraine, that actually European security and defense depends very strongly on the U.S.,” Raik said.
Raik noted, of course, that European countries, most notably Germany, are scrambling to update their militaries. France has also pledged large increases in its defense budgets.
But these changes, she cautioned, will take a “very long time.”
If Macron “wants to be serious in showing that he really aims at a Europe that is capable of defending itself,” Raik argued, “he also should be showing that France is willing to do much more to defend Europe vis-à-vis Russia.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Donald Trump accused French President Emmanuel Macron of sucking up to China late Wednesday.
“You’ve got this crazy world that’s blowing up and the United States have absolutely no say,” Trump, who became the first U.S. president — former or current — to be indicted last month, told Fox News.
“And Macron, who’s a friend of mine, is over with China kissing [Xi’s] ass in China, okay. I said France is now going to China?” said Trump, whose relationship with Macron gradually soured during his time in office.
Macron’s comments come after the French president suggested Europe avoid getting dragged into a U.S.-China confrontation over Taiwan, in an interview with POLITICO during his official visit to China.
The “great risk” Europe faces, Macron claimed, is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy.”
Macron’s comments have not made him new friends on the other side of the Atlantic.
In the U.S., Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, called them “embarrassing” and “disgraceful. The White House said only that it was “focused on the terrific collaboration and coordination that we have with France,” per National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
Despite his harsh words for Macron’s China trip, Trump — who more than once boasted about his excellent relationship with the Chinese president when he was in office — went on to praise Xi Jinping in his interview Wednesday.
“President Xi is a brilliant man: if you went all over Hollywood to look for somebody to play the role of President Xi, you couldn’t find him,” Trump said.
“There’s nobody like that: The look, the brains, the whole thing,” he added, describing Xi someone who is “top of the line smart.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Republicans on Capitol Hill sounded equally as dire.
“The Chinese Communist Party is the most significant challenge to Western society, our economic security, and our way of life…France must be clear-eyed about this threat,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Macron’s statements “were embarrassing, they were disgraceful… and very geopolitically naïve,” Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on China, told Fox News on Monday. The French president’s views “are disheartening because the Chinese Communist Party’s threat to Taiwan is a growing danger to the global balance of power,” said Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The State Department argued that Macron’s comments were not as divisive as they might seem. “There is immense convergence between us and our European allies and partners and how we tackle [China’s] challenge head-on,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters on Monday.
The White House took a similar tack. “We’ll let the Élysée speak for President Macron’s comments — we’re focused on the terrific collaboration and coordination that we have with France as an ally and a friend,” said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
Macron’s comments reflect his belief that European countries should embrace a concept of “strategic autonomy” on economic and geostrategic issues distinct from U.S. foreign policy settings. But that strategy is at odds with President Joe Biden’s efforts to create a common front with allies and partners — including those in the European Union — to fend off China’s and Russia’s threats to what the administration calls the “rules-based international order.”
The uproar over Macron’s statements also reflects a divide in Europe over how to approach China — an economic powerhouse that many are loath to completely desert.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who accompanied Macron for part of his visit, said she told Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping during their meeting in Beijing last week that “the threat [of] the use of force to change [Taiwan’s] status quo is unacceptable.”
The French embassy blamed the furor over Macron’s remarks on “overinterpretations” and said that France’s position on Taiwan is unchanged. Last year, then-French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described Taiwan’s security as essential to regional stability and said that France was “very keen to act to prevent any conflict.”
Macron was saying that “if we cannot end the conflict in #Ukraine, what credibility will we have on Taiwan? We seek to engage with China for peace&stability in Ukraine. And the Taiwan issue obviously came up in his talks w/Pres Xi,” the French embassy’s press counselor, Pascal Confavreux, said in a series of tweets on Monday.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C. — the self-governing island’s de facto embassy — didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Some GOP lawmakers called for a re-evaluation of the U.S.-French relationship. “If France is truly committed to abandoning democratic nations in favor of a brutal communist regime, the United States must reassess its posture toward France,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the Congressional Executive Commission on China. He called Macron’s statement a “seeming betrayal of democratic Taiwan.”
Others saw a double standard in France’s support for U.S. efforts to defend Ukraine while turning a blind eye to China’s threat to Taiwan. “Macron wants the U.S. to ride to Europe’s rescue against Russian aggression, but apparently take a vow of neutrality against Chinese aggression in the Pacific,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) tweeted on Monday.
Longer term, Macron’s comments could help bolster GOP lawmakers who want an end to the Biden administration’s massive outlay of cash and weaponry to support Ukraine’s battle against Russia. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) earlier this month called for an end to U.S. funding for what she calls a U.S. “proxy war with Russia.” And putative GOP presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida recently dismissed the war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” not vital to U.S. national security interests, a position he walked back several days later.
“If Macron speaks for all of Europe, and their position now is they’re not going to pick sides between the U.S. and China over Taiwan…maybe we should basically say we’re going to focus on Taiwan and the threats that China poses, and you guys handle Ukraine and Europe,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a tweet on Sunday.
Alex Ward contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Republicans on Capitol Hill sounded equally as dire.
“The Chinese Communist Party is the most significant challenge to Western society, our economic security, and our way of life…France must be clear-eyed about this threat,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Macron’s statements “were embarrassing, they were disgraceful… and very geopolitically naïve,” Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on China, told Fox News on Monday. The French president’s views “are disheartening because the Chinese Communist Party’s threat to Taiwan is a growing danger to the global balance of power,” said Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The State Department argued that Macron’s comments were not as divisive as they might seem. “There is immense convergence between us and our European allies and partners and how we tackle [China’s] challenge head-on,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters on Monday.
The White House took a similar tack. “We’ll let the Élysée speak for President Macron’s comments — we’re focused on the terrific collaboration and coordination that we have with France as an ally and a friend,” said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
Macron’s comments reflect his belief that European countries should embrace a concept of “strategic autonomy” on economic and geostrategic issues distinct from U.S. foreign policy settings. But that strategy is at odds with President Joe Biden’s efforts to create a common front with allies and partners — including those in the European Union — to fend off China’s and Russia’s threats to what the administration calls the “rules-based international order.”
The uproar over Macron’s statements also reflects a divide in Europe over how to approach China — an economic powerhouse that many are loath to completely desert.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who accompanied Macron for part of his visit, said she told Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping during their meeting in Beijing last week that “the threat [of] the use of force to change [Taiwan’s] status quo is unacceptable.”
The French embassy blamed the furor over Macron’s remarks on “overinterpretations” and said that France’s position on Taiwan is unchanged. Last year, then-French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described Taiwan’s security as essential to regional stability and said that France was “very keen to act to prevent any conflict.”
Macron was saying that “if we cannot end the conflict in #Ukraine, what credibility will we have on Taiwan? We seek to engage with China for peace&stability in Ukraine. And the Taiwan issue obviously came up in his talks w/Pres Xi,” the French embassy’s press counselor, Pascal Confavreux, said in a series of tweets on Monday.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C. — the self-governing island’s de facto embassy — didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Some GOP lawmakers called for a re-evaluation of the U.S.-French relationship. “If France is truly committed to abandoning democratic nations in favor of a brutal communist regime, the United States must reassess its posture toward France,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the Congressional Executive Commission on China. He called Macron’s statement a “seeming betrayal of democratic Taiwan.”
Others saw a double standard in France’s support for U.S. efforts to defend Ukraine while turning a blind eye to China’s threat to Taiwan. “Macron wants the U.S. to ride to Europe’s rescue against Russian aggression, but apparently take a vow of neutrality against Chinese aggression in the Pacific,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) tweeted on Monday.
Longer term, Macron’s comments could help bolster GOP lawmakers who want an end to the Biden administration’s massive outlay of cash and weaponry to support Ukraine’s battle against Russia. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) earlier this month called for an end to U.S. funding for what she calls a U.S. “proxy war with Russia.” And putative GOP presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida recently dismissed the war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” not vital to U.S. national security interests, a position he walked back several days later.
“If Macron speaks for all of Europe, and their position now is they’re not going to pick sides between the U.S. and China over Taiwan…maybe we should basically say we’re going to focus on Taiwan and the threats that China poses, and you guys handle Ukraine and Europe,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a tweet on Sunday.
Alex Ward contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Beijing: China on Monday said it has successfully completed its three-day large-scale fire and fury military drills “encircling” Taiwan, including the use of an aircraft carrier, aimed at showing its anger over the US House Speaker’s meeting with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen.
The Eastern Theatre Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) successfully completed all tasks of its combat readiness patrols and exercises around Taiwan Island, official media here reported.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Sunday that in the past 24 hours, 70 Chinese aircraft and 11 Chinese ships were spotted around Taiwan.
China views Taiwan as a breakaway province. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to reunify the self-ruled island with the mainland.
Analysts say that PLA’s exercises this time compared to last August when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, becoming the first high-profile American politician to visit the island defying Beijing’s redlines, were muted and far less in intensity.
China deployed its aircraft carrier ‘Shandong’ and the state-run CCTV showed missiles being fired from several of China’s coastal areas into the Taiwan Strait, the busy waterway that separates the self-governing island from the mainland but chose to end it in three days compared to its previous response.
Officials here attribute the reason for short-term drills to Presidential elections in January next year and Beijing was averse to creating a negative public impression in Taiwan which may shore up public support to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headed by Tsai, a firm opponent of reunification with China.
China hosted former Taiwanese politician Ma Ying-jeou, heading Kuomintang (KMT) party which advocates peaceful ties with Beijing. Ma concluded his visit to China just around the same time Tsai visited the US.
The PLA on Saturday said its forces launched combat readiness patrol and military exercises around Taiwan Island, which will last from April 8 to 10.
The patrol and exercises take place in the maritime areas and airspace of the Taiwan Strait, off the northern and southern coasts of the island, and to the island’s east, said Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the command.
These operations serve as a stern warning against the collusion between separatist forces seeking “Taiwan independence” and external forces and against their provocative activities, Shi said, adding that the operations are necessary for safeguarding China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday that secessionist acts of “Taiwan independence” and the connivance and support of external forces to them pose the “greatest danger” to peace in the Taiwan Straits.
Acts of “Taiwan independence” are incompatible with peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits “as fire and water,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the ministry, said in response to questions about the ongoing military exercises around the Taiwan Island.
“To maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, we must firmly oppose all forms of ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist acts,” Wang said at a press briefing here.
At Monday’s briefing, Wang expressed hope that the international community shall recognise the nature of the Taiwan question, adhere to the one-China principle, and oppose all forms of “Taiwan independence” secessionist activities.
Meanwhile, an editorial in the PLA Daily on Monday said the US cannot be relied on to defend Taiwan.
It accused Washington of using Taiwan as a pawn and creating a “porcupine” island to contain Beijing, referring to the military strategy of deterring military attacks from the mainland by making conflict too costly.
In the last two days, the PLA simulated missile strikes against key targets on Taiwan and waters near it. It also sent warplanes and ships near Taiwan to improve its combat readiness across multiple armed services and the ability to encircle the island.
The PLA Daily editorial accused the US of having ulterior motives when selling arms to Taiwan.
“Can the US’ ‘security guarantee’ be depended on? The answer is, of course, a resounding no,” the editorial said.
The multi-day exercises coincided with the return of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to Taipei after her high-profile visit to the US last week when she met US House Speaker McCarthy, a move denounced by Beijing.
Also, China on Friday slapped sanctions on two American organisations that hosted Tsai besides Asia-based groups – The Prospect Foundation and the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats – for their involvement in promoting Taiwan’s independence.
China views any official exchanges between foreign governments and Taiwan as an infringement on Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over the island.
The aggressive exercises were launched after French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his high-profile visit to China on Friday, during which he held wide-range talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, prodding him to use his friendship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to end the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Tsai’s predecessor and pro-Beijing politician, Ma Ying-jeou, also returned to Taiwan on Friday last, ending a 12-day trip to the Chinese mainland, where he sought to promote the one-China framework as the basis for improving cross-strait ties and holding talks.
Beijing: China on Friday slapped sanctions on two American organisations that hosted Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen during her visit to the US and her meeting with the House Speaker, a day after President Xi Jinping said it is “wishful thinking” to expect Beijing to “compromise” on its stand on the self-ruled island.
Tsai’s meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy – the third most senior official in the US – on Thursday took place against the backdrop of repeated warnings from Beijing to Washington that the meeting should not happen. It was the first time a Taiwan president had met a US Speaker on American soil.
China views any official exchanges between foreign governments and Taiwan as an infringement on Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over the island.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the Washington-based think tank Hudson Institute and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California would be banned from any cooperation, exchange or transaction with institutions and individuals in China.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley was the site where Tsai met McCarthy and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders. It was the second high-profile meeting between an American official and Taiwan’s president.
China also sanctioned the Hudson Institute, which hosted an event and presented Tsai with its global leadership award on March 30.
The sanctioned groups included Asia-based groups –The Prospect Foundation and the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats for their involvement in promoting Taiwan’s independence.
“[The] Taiwan issue is the core of China’s core interests. The Chinese government and Chinese people will never agree to anyone making a fuss about the one-China issue,” President Xi told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a meeting in Beijing on Thursday.
It was his first comment after the US House Speaker McCarthy met Tsai, which Beijing sharply criticised.
“Anyone who expects China to compromise on the Taiwan question could only be wishful thinking and self-defeating,” Xi was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, von der Leyen said the Taiwan issue had been discussed and she had told Xi that “the threat to use force to change the status quo is unacceptable. It is important that some of the tensions that might occur should be resolved through dialogue”, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
On Friday’s sanctions, the foreign ministry in Beijing said that both American institutions were banned from having exchanges, cooperation, and other activities with any individuals, universities or institutions in China.
“We want to stress China will take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a media briefing.
She also sought to dismiss a question on how Beijing can integrate Taiwan, which follows a multiple-party democratic system with that of China’s one-party rule headed by the ruling Communist Party.
The Taiwan question is not about democracy but about China’s territorial integrity and reunification and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, Mao said.
“The sovereignty and territory of China have never been divided and will never be divided,” she asserted.
“Some countries support Taiwan in the name of democracy and use the Taiwan question to contain China. This move is dangerous and gets nowhere. Taiwan’s future lies in the development of cross-strait relations and reunification with the mainland,” she added.
The difference in systems is not a barrier to reunification or an excuse for division, Mao said and advocated the ‘one country-two systems’ formula which Beijing sought to apply to Hong Kong.
Peaceful reunification and the ‘one country two systems’ take Taiwan’s realities into full account and help to achieve peace and stability after re-unification, she said.
“It is the basic principle to resolving the Taiwan question and the best way for realising reunification,” she said.
The sanctions came a day after China vowed reprisals against Taiwan.
China and the US also flexed their naval might by deploying aircraft carriers in a rare showdown in the Taiwan Strait.
Under its longstanding “One China” policy, the US acknowledges China’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognised Beijing’s claim to the island of 23 million. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, it is also bound by law to provide the democratic island with the means to defend itself.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s foreign ministry on Friday said the head of state of the Republic of China (Taiwan) exercises a basic right of a sovereign nation when travelling to other countries to engage in diplomatic activities. China has no right to intervene.
“China is overreacting when it uses this as a pretext to further suppress Taiwan’s international space and impose so-called sanctions on related individuals and organisations. Such irrational behaviour not only increases the Taiwanese people’s antipathy to China but also exposes the erratic and absurd nature of the communist regime,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Beijing: China on Friday slapped sanctions on two American organisations that hosted Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen during her visit to the US and her meeting with the House Speaker, a day after President Xi Jinping said it is “wishful thinking” to expect Beijing to “compromise” on its stand on the self-ruled island.
Tsai’s meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy – the third most senior official in the US – on Thursday took place against the backdrop of repeated warnings from Beijing to Washington that the meeting should not happen. It was the first time a Taiwan president had met a US Speaker on American soil.
China views any official exchanges between foreign governments and Taiwan as an infringement on Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over the island.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the Washington-based think tank Hudson Institute and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California would be banned from any cooperation, exchange or transaction with institutions and individuals in China.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley was the site where Tsai met McCarthy and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders. It was the second high-profile meeting between an American official and Taiwan’s president.
China also sanctioned the Hudson Institute, which hosted an event and presented Tsai with its global leadership award on March 30.
The sanctioned groups included Asia-based groups –The Prospect Foundation and the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats for their involvement in promoting Taiwan’s independence.
“[The] Taiwan issue is the core of China’s core interests. The Chinese government and Chinese people will never agree to anyone making a fuss about the one-China issue,” President Xi told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a meeting in Beijing on Thursday.
It was his first comment after the US House Speaker McCarthy met Tsai, which Beijing sharply criticised.
“Anyone who expects China to compromise on the Taiwan question could only be wishful thinking and self-defeating,” Xi was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, von der Leyen said the Taiwan issue had been discussed and she had told Xi that “the threat to use force to change the status quo is unacceptable. It is important that some of the tensions that might occur should be resolved through dialogue”, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
On Friday’s sanctions, the foreign ministry in Beijing said that both American institutions were banned from having exchanges, cooperation, and other activities with any individuals, universities or institutions in China.
“We want to stress China will take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a media briefing.
She also sought to dismiss a question on how Beijing can integrate Taiwan, which follows a multiple-party democratic system with that of China’s one-party rule headed by the ruling Communist Party.
The Taiwan question is not about democracy but about China’s territorial integrity and reunification and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, Mao said.
“The sovereignty and territory of China have never been divided and will never be divided,” she asserted.
“Some countries support Taiwan in the name of democracy and use the Taiwan question to contain China. This move is dangerous and gets nowhere. Taiwan’s future lies in the development of cross-strait relations and reunification with the mainland,” she added.
The difference in systems is not a barrier to reunification or an excuse for division, Mao said and advocated the ‘one country-two systems’ formula which Beijing sought to apply to Hong Kong.
Peaceful reunification and the ‘one country two systems’ take Taiwan’s realities into full account and help to achieve peace and stability after re-unification, she said.
“It is the basic principle to resolving the Taiwan question and the best way for realising reunification,” she said.
The sanctions came a day after China vowed reprisals against Taiwan.
China and the US also flexed their naval might by deploying aircraft carriers in a rare showdown in the Taiwan Strait.
Under its longstanding “One China” policy, the US acknowledges China’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognised Beijing’s claim to the island of 23 million. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, it is also bound by law to provide the democratic island with the means to defend itself.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s foreign ministry on Friday said the head of state of the Republic of China (Taiwan) exercises a basic right of a sovereign nation when travelling to other countries to engage in diplomatic activities. China has no right to intervene. “China is overreacting when it uses this as a pretext to further suppress Taiwan’s international space and impose so-called sanctions on related individuals and organisations. Such irrational behaviour not only increases the Taiwanese people’s antipathy to China but also exposes the erratic and absurd nature of the communist regime,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
ABOARD COTAM UNITÉ (FRANCE’S AIR FORCE ONE) — Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on his plane back from a three-day state visit to China.
Speaking with POLITICO and two French journalists after spending around six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip, Macron emphasized his pet theory of “strategic autonomy” for Europe, presumably led by France, to become a “third superpower.”
He said “the great risk” Europe faces is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy,” while flying from Beijing to Guangzhou, in southern China, aboard COTAM Unité, France’s Air Force One.
Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party have enthusiastically endorsed Macron’s concept of strategic autonomy and Chinese officials constantly refer to it in their dealings with European countries. Party leaders and theorists in Beijing are convinced the West is in decline and China is on the ascendant and that weakening the transatlantic relationship will help accelerate this trend.
“The paradox would be that, overcome with panic, we believe we are just America’s followers,” Macron said in the interview. “The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” he said.
Just hours after his flight left Guangzhou headed back to Paris, China launched large military exercises around the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its territory but the U.S. has promised to arm and defend.
Those exercises were a response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen’s 10-day diplomatic tour of Central American countries that included a meeting with Republican U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy while she transited in California. People familiar with Macron’s thinking said he was happy Beijing had at least waited until he was out of Chinese airspace before launching the simulated “Taiwan encirclement” exercise.
Beijing has repeatedly threatened to invade in recent years and has a policy of isolating the democratic island by forcing other countries to recognize it as part of “one China.”
Taiwan talks
Macron and Xi discussed Taiwan “intensely,” according to French officials accompanying the president, who appears to have taken a more conciliatory approach than the U.S. or even the European Union.
“Stability in the Taiwan Strait is of paramount importance,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who accompanied Macron for part of his visit, said she told Xi during their meeting in Beijing last Thursday. “The threat [of] the use of force to change the status quo is unacceptable.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron in Guangdong on April 7, 2023 | Pool Photo by Jacques Witt / AFP via Getty Images
Xi responded by saying anyone who thought they could influence Beijing on Taiwan was deluded.
Macron appears to agree with that assessment.
“Europeans cannot resolve the crisis in Ukraine; how can we credibly say on Taiwan, ‘watch out, if you do something wrong we will be there’? If you really want to increase tensions that’s the way to do it,” he said.
“Europe is more willing to accept a world in which China becomes a regional hegemon,” said Yanmei Xie, a geopolitics analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics. “Some of its leaders even believe such a world order may be more advantageous to Europe.”
In his trilateral meeting with Macron and von der Leyen last Thursday in Beijing, Xi Jinping went off script on only two topics — Ukraine and Taiwan — according to someone who was present in the room.
“Xi was visibly annoyed for being held responsible for the Ukraine conflict and he downplayed his recent visit to Moscow,” this person said. “He was clearly enraged by the U.S. and very upset over Taiwan, by the Taiwanese president’s transit through the U.S. and [the fact that] foreign policy issues were being raised by Europeans.”
In this meeting, Macron and von der Leyen took similar lines on Taiwan, this person said. But Macron subsequently spent more than four hours with the Chinese leader, much of it with only translators present, and his tone was far more conciliatory than von der Leyen’s when speaking with journalists.
‘Vassals’ warning
Macron also argued that Europe had increased its dependency on the U.S. for weapons and energy and must now focus on boosting European defense industries.
He also suggested Europe should reduce its dependence on the “extraterritoriality of the U.S. dollar,” a key policy objective of both Moscow and Beijing.
Macron has long been a proponent of strategic autonomy for Europe | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
“If the tensions between the two superpowers heat up … we won’t have the time nor the resources to finance our strategic autonomy and we will become vassals,” he said.
Russia, China, Iran and other countries have been hit by U.S. sanctions in recent years that are based on denying access to the dominant dollar-denominated global financial system. Some in Europe have complained about “weaponization” of the dollar by Washington, which forces European companies to give up business and cut ties with third countries or face crippling secondary sanctions.
While sitting in the stateroom of his A330 aircraft in a hoodie with the words “French Tech” emblazoned on the chest, Macron claimed to have already “won the ideological battle on strategic autonomy” for Europe.
He did not address the question of ongoing U.S. security guarantees for the Continent, which relies heavily on American defense assistance amid the first major land war in Europe since World War II.
As one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the only nuclear power in the EU, France is in a unique position militarily. However, the country has contributed far less to the defense of Ukraine against Russia’s invasion than many other countries.
As is common in France and many other European countries, the French President’s office, known as the Elysée Palace, insisted on checking and “proofreading” all the president’s quotes to be published in this article as a condition of granting the interview. This violates POLITICO’s editorial standards and policy, but we agreed to the terms in order to speak directly with the French president. POLITICO insisted that it cannot deceive its readers and would not publish anything the president did not say. The quotes in this article were all actually said by the president, but some parts of the interview in which the president spoke even more frankly about Taiwan and Europe’s strategic autonomy were cut out by the Elysée.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
