French lawmakers will visit Taiwan, the island’s foreign minister said on Monday, as China ramps up military exercises around the self-governing island.
Joseph Wu said that France’s Senate and National Assembly had shown support for Taiwan and that French politicians will travel to the capital “very soon,” according to a Bloomberg report, which added the delegation is expected to travel Sunday.
Taiwan’s government will “check with them to see what kind of additional support we would need,” Wu added.
His comments follow French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to China last week, during which he told POLITICO that Europe should avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between Beijing and the U.S. over Taiwan. China considers the island part of its territory, a claim rejected by Taipei.
“The paradox would be that, overcome with panic, we believe we are just 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 added in the interview, in remarks which sparked a social media storm and blowback from senior U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio.
Wu did not specify which French lawmakers would travel to Taipei, and France’s National Assembly and Senate did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
Beijing has just completed three days of military exercises near Taiwan in retaliation for its President Tsai Ing-wen meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last Wednesday.
The drills — which Beijing called a “stern warning” — saw China practice precision strikes and blockade the island. Taipei said around 70 Chinese aircraft flew around Taiwan on Sunday, with 11 ships also spotted.
