<\/p>\n
Chinese officials have been pushing \u201clegal advice\u201d on European countries, saying their own border laws require them to ban entry to Taiwanese politicians, according to more than half a dozen diplomats and officials familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
The officials made demarches to European embassies in Beijing, or through local embassies directly to European governments in their capital cities, warning the European countries not to \u201ctrample on China\u2019s red lines\u201d, according to the European diplomats and ministries who spoke to the Guardian.<\/p>\n
The manner of the approaches varied \u2013 some to individual countries and some as groups, some by written note verbale (a semiformal diplomatic communication) and others in person. They occurred in November and December, and were at least partly in response to recent European trips by Taiwanese officials including its current vice-president and foreign minister, and a former president.<\/p>\n Beijing said it \u201crespects the sovereignty of the European side in introducing and implementing visa policy\u201d, but an \u201cinstitutional loophole\u201d had allowed frequent visits by Taiwan politicians, according to one note verbale seen by the Guardian.<\/p>\n The Chinese cited multiple EU laws and regulations, including one known as the Schengen Borders Code, which says<\/a> a condition for entry by non-EU nationals is that they \u201care not considered to be a threat to the \u2026 international relations of any of the member states\u201d.<\/p>\n The officials\u2019 suggestion, the Guardian understands, was that allowing Taiwanese officials to enter a European country would threaten that country\u2019s international relations with China.<\/p>\n In some cases they also referred to the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations, or suggested the European countries follow the UN\u2019s example and bar all Taiwanese people from government buildings, the Guardian was told.<\/p>\n \u201cBeijing\u2019s application and interpretation of this regulation is bold,\u201d said Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, assistant professor at Taiwan\u2019s National Dong Hwa University, when told about the moves. \u201cIt is Beijing\u2019s interpretation that EU-Taiwan ties threaten EU-China ties. This is not at all the perception or reality in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n China\u2019s foreign ministry did not respond to questions. But the note verbale said European countries should reject any \u201cso-called diplomatic passports\u201d issued by Taiwan, and \u201cprohibit Taiwanese personnel from entering Europe to seek official contact and exchanges and trample on China\u2019s red line\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cChina hopes the EU institutions and European countries will, out of the larger interests of China-EU relations and bilateral relations, make the political decision of refusing the entry of Taiwan\u2019s so-called president or vice president (former ones included),\u201d it said, also listing other officials.<\/p>\n The note cited visits by the officials to Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Germany, Lithuania, Denmark, Estonia and Ireland, saying they \u201cseriously undermine China-EU relations\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe European side \u2026 even indulged [vice-president] Hsiao Bi-khim to speak at the building of the European parliament and promote \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 separatist claims,\u201d it said, referring to a speech<\/a> given by Hsiao to the annual summit of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac) in Brussels.<\/p>\n The foreign ministries of Norway and Finland confirmed they were among the nations to receive the advice. They said visa regulations with Taiwan were determined by relevant Schengen bodies.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said: \u201cPermission to enter the UK is determined solely by our own laws and immigration rules, which apply equally to those travelling from Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n Taiwan\u2019s foreign ministry said officials\u2019 visits to Europe were \u201centirely unrelated to China, and China has no right to interfere\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the contrary, China\u2019s use of various coercive measures against other countries and its threats of force against Taiwan, which undermine global and Indo-Pacific peace and stability and threaten the direct interests of the EU, is the real force damaging European international relations,\u201d the spokesperson told the Guardian.<\/p>\n \u201cChina\u2019s actions should be condemned.\u201d<\/p>\n The Guardian understands that China\u2019s \u201chighly specific\u201d advice \u2013 on European border codes that have been in place since 2011 \u2013 was not seen as legally sound by recipients, but the warning tone was taken particularly seriously by some smaller nations.<\/p>\n \u201cI see this as another way to generate unease among member states that their relations with the [People\u2019s Republic of China] might be at risk<\/a> \u2026 and Beijing knows well that some EU member states are very keen to attract Chinese investment at present,\u201d said Ferenczy.<\/p>\n The EU does not take a position on Taiwan\u2019s status, and while it has formal relations with Beijing it also maintains \u201csolid\u201d unofficial relations<\/a> with Taipei through parliamentary diplomacy and trade. Several European countries and the EU have trade offices that act as unofficial embassies in Taipei.<\/p>\n However in recent years the bloc has come under increasing pressure from Beijing, which claims Taiwan as a province of China, and intends to annex it \u2013 by force if necessary. Among its strategies to coerce Taiwan into accepting unification<\/a> without conflict, Beijing puts intense diplomatic pressure<\/a> on the international community to isolate Taipei<\/a> from multilateral engagement.<\/p>\n Claus Soong, an analyst at Merics specialising in China\u2019s global strategy, said the unusual move fitted with Beijing\u2019s long-running strategy of using all possible means to deter closer cooperation with Taiwan.<\/p>\n \u201cBeijing is trying as much as they can to say that you should really think a little bit before letting Taiwanese officials in. I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s a threat, it\u2019s more a reminder, although not necessarily gentle.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #China #pressing #European #countries #bar #Taiwan #politicians #face #crossing #red #line #Taiwan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chinese officials have been pu… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}