Taiwan was subjected to alleged attempts by neighbouring China to “interfere” in its recent presidential elections, a recent hearing in the European Parliament was told.
Speakers at the meeting raised concerns about such alleged attempts to influence the outcome of the key election.
Taiwanese voters swept the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Lai Ching-te into power in this month’s poll, strongly rejecting Chinese pressure to spurn him, as China said it would not give up on achieving “reunification”.
Lai’s party, which champions Taiwan’s separate identity and rejects China’s territorial claims, was seeking a third successive four year term, unprecedented under Taiwan’s current electoral system.
Dr Roy Chun Lee, Taiwan’s ambassador in Brussels, claimed that Taiwan voters had been subject to “intimidation” by China in the election, saying Beijing had tried to influence the outcome of the poll.
He also told the audience, comprising MEPs and experts in the field of democracy and human rights, there is a strong consensus in Taiwan for continued strong cooperation with the EU and for Taiwan’s cross strait policy.
“We are also seeing a demand from the public to accelerate our reform agenda and the political process in Taiwan.”
“There is a demand for intense cross party cooperation to make these top priorities.”
Another speaker was Michael Cole who alleged that China used a whole range of measures to try to influence the outcome of the poll at the start of January.
Cole, a research fellow at the Prospect Foundation in Taiwan and Senior Advisor at the International Republican Institute (IRI) in the US), explained how China had “sought to interfere in electoral process in Taiwan.”
He said that China “has little soft power to influence the outcome of elections” and also “was unable to offer a narrative to appeal to the majority in Taiwan.”
As a result he said most of its efforts (to interfere) had been “coercive.”
Also speaking was Estonian MEP Andrus Ansip, a former EU commissioner, who reminded the audience that Estonia had followed the “One China” policy, describing this as “a pragmatic decision.”
However, more focus was now on Taiwan, he said, following the war in Ukraine war.
He said, “We now understand how China interprets sovereignty: it has not condemned Russia.”
“Because of this war more people are starting to think about Taiwan.”
Image: By Solomon203 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138889184
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