Wait for Chinese response: Taiwanese vice president visits Europe for conference on democracy
European Parliament’s Vice President Pina Picierno says Hsiao Bi-khim’s visit ‘was kept secret until her arrival to protect her participation’ in the conference.
Hsiao has been invited to attend the Ventotene Conference for Freedom and Democracy, and is travelling with Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung, the presidential office said in a brief statement.
Other details will be provided once the two return to Taiwan from the Italian island of Ventotene, it added,
While Taiwan’s foreign ministers occasionally visit Europe and other parts of the world that have no formal ties to the Chinese-claimed island, it is rare for an official as senior as the vice president to do so, given the risk of backlash from Beijing against the host nation.
Pina Picierno, vice president of the European Parliament, said Hsiao’s planned participation “was kept secret until her arrival to protect her participation” in the conference.
“No one can determine who can be hosted on European soil, what voices can be heard, and what presences must be hidden,” Picierno said in a Facebook post. “It is a simple and very clear message: intimidation cannot decide who participates in our democratic debate.”
“Freedom of debate is not negotiable with autocracies. And Ventotene, more than ever today, must continue to be the place where freedom and democracy are defended without fear,” she added.
The Ventotene conference takes place from Thursday until Saturday this week. Italy, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan.
Taiwan’s vice president calls for closer EU ties
China says Taiwan is one of its provinces, a view the democratically governed island strongly rejects.
Last November, Hsiao spoke at the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China’s annual summit, held in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Taiwan’s deputy leader urged the European Union to boost security and trade ties with the self-governing island and support its democracy in the face of growing threats by China, in a rare address to a group of international lawmakers in Brussels on Friday.
“Peace in the Taiwan Strait is essential to global stability and economic continuity, and international opposition against unilateral changes to the status quo by force cannot be overstated,” Vice President Bi-Khim Hsiao told lawmakers assembled for a China-focused conference in the European Parliament building.
While Hsiao did not formally address the whole EU Parliament — the European trade bloc does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan — her visit drew ire from China.
“In an era marked by increasing fragmentation, volatility and rising authoritarianism, this gathering affirms something vital — that democracies, even when far apart, are not alone,” she added to a standing ovation in a small chamber of the European Parliament.
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Hsiao also called on the lawmakers from countries including Germany and Spain to collaborate more on trusted supply chains and AI technology with Taiwan, the island off China’s east coast that Beijing claims as part of its territory and says must come under its rule.
EU members, like most countries including the United States, have no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and follow a “One China” policy. But the EU and Taiwan share common democratic values as well as close trade ties, and the bloc opposes any use of military force by China to settle its dispute with Taiwan.
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