French President Emmanuel Macron and President of the European Commission van der Leyen started their visit to China today. French cross-party MPs wrote a letter in Le Monde on the 4th calling on the two to “not be weak or silent.” will be accepted.
Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen will visit China on the 5th and are expected to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on the 6th.
This is the first visit to China by the French head of state after the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) outbreak, and the invitation of EU leaders is considered by all walks of life as an important meeting to redefine EU-China relations, which has aroused the attention of French public opinion.
The French “Le Monde” published a joint letter signed by French cross-party parliamentarians and members of the “International Parliamentary Alliance on China Policy” (IPAC) on the 4th, stating that it is necessary to preventively let Beijing know that violations of Taiwan will not be tolerated.
Olivier Cadic and André Gattolin, two vice-chairmen of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the French Senate, Constance Le Grip, a member of the National Assembly, André Vallini, a senator and former Secretary of State, and Members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China Policy, composed of transnational parliamentarians, participated in the joint signature.
Members of Congress cut straight to the point in their submissions, saying that Xi Jinping’s intention to incorporate Taiwan into the territory of the People’s Republic of China is becoming more and more worrying, and intimidation such as harassment at sea and in the air is increasing. Any possible meeting with McCarthy is viewed as a double provocation.”
Then the content pointed to Hong Kong, saying that the situation in Hong Kong in the past three years showed China’s expansion ambitions, even if it destroyed the signed international agreements. The MPs were referring to the Sino-British Joint Declaration guaranteeing Hong Kong’s capitalist way of life and a high degree of autonomy until 2047.
Since the pro-democracy protests in 2019, civil liberties in Hong Kong have been increasingly restricted. The Hong Kong government, which is like a puppet of Beijing, adopted more restrictions in the name of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region National Security Law in 2020. As a result, thousands of democracy fighters are now imprisoned, and tens of thousands of people are forced to leave their hometowns to avoid being hunted down. In 2022 and 2023, the United Nations twice condemned the National Security Law as violating human rights and freedoms and called for its immediate repeal.
They said: “If the international community does not react in advance, the current situation in Hong Kong may be repeated tomorrow in Taiwan. Therefore, it is critical and urgent to denounce and condemn Hong Kong’s human rights violations, not only to support the victims, but also to let Beijing know that Hong Kong Behavior that cannot be tolerated by human beings will no longer be accepted in Taiwan.”
“Xi Jinping may think that Europeans ignore the aggression against Hong Kong, and he doesn’t have to fear sanctions if he attacks Taiwan.”
Therefore, cross-party lawmakers emphasized in the letter that “this is not a moment of weakness or silence” and called on Macron and van der Leyen to use the meeting to “send a clear and firm message to the Chinese authorities.”
Since economic exchanges and international trade are crucial to the survival of the Chinese regime, “the West should record warnings to Beijing from this perspective to express their unwavering support for Taiwan”.
On the 3rd, Le Monde published a letter written by former political staff of the European Parliament and Hungarian scholar Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, saying that assisting Taiwan’s democratic confrontation is also beneficial to the EU.
Feng Rusha, who is doing postdoctoral research in Taiwan, warned that the Russo-Ukraine war should teach Europe that failure to contain the threat of a totalitarian regime will have to pay a high price, and urged the EU to strengthen support for Taiwan to face China.
“The EU and Taiwan should strengthen each other’s democratic resistance, and should adjust their strategic approaches based on mutual expectations. Closer cooperation is beneficial to each other. If Europe wants to protect its own interests and political freedom, it should regard Taiwan as a key partner and work closely to strengthen the Democracy, through frequent communication at the highest levels, sends a powerful message to dictators: democracy is not in decline”.