The visit is likely to trigger diplomatic upsets with the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese government has always opposed visits by foreign lawmakers to Taiwan, calling them interference in its internal affairs. Beijing regards the island as a breakaway territory.
Strack-Zimmermann leads the delegation together with FDP parliamentary secretary Johannes Vogel. Vogel warned that after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, Chinese President Xi Jinping could also unleash a war.
“After Putin comes Xi,” Vogel told AFP. “Because a signal of support for Taiwan is now necessary, we are now traveling to Taiwan as a delegation from the FDP parliamentary group in view of the military threats from China.” Vogel warned: “We have to take the autocrats seriously and literally – because Xi Jinping’s threats of military reunification are a dangerous aspect of the new systems competition with autocracies.”
On the occasion of their visit to Taiwan, Strack-Zimmermann and Vogel warned that Germany was becoming too dependent on China, both economically and technologically. “Not only the Russia policy of the last few years has drastically shown us that it can only be to our disadvantage to make ourselves dependent on autocratic states economically and especially with regard to critical infrastructure,” said Strack-Zimmermann to AFP. “Germany must also become more independent of China.”
The delegation includes members of the FDP parliamentary group executive committee as well as defense and foreign politicians – including parliamentary group deputy Konstantin Kuhle, human rights committee chairwoman Renata Alt, foreign policy spokesman Ulrich Lechte and defense policy spokesman Alexander Müller.
Tensions over Taiwan reached a new high last August when Beijing held large-scale military drills around the democratically-ruled island in protest at a visit to Taipei by then-US Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
