(CNSNews.com) – Delegations of French lawmakers are heading to Taiwan in a bid to reassure the island democracy of support after President Emmanuel Macron made waves with comments about Europe’s stance on the China-Taiwan dispute.
Sen. Alain Richard of the centrist Renaissance party announced plans to lead a cross-party group of five senators to Taiwan on a week-long visit beginning on Sunday. He told Public Sénat TV the aim was “to dialogue with the government on their security situation and to discuss economic exchanges.”
It follows a visit to Taiwan this week by four members of the National Assembly, the lower House. “These trips are meant to reaffirm France’s support to Taiwan after last week’s controversial remarks by President Emmanuel Macron,” the delegation leader, Renaissance lawmaker Eric Bothorel, told reporters on arrival in Taipei.
Paris is in favor of maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, Bothorel said. Beijing claims the self-governing island and seeks to reincorporate it into “one China.”
“We want to reaffirm our willingness to cooperate,” Bothorel said. “It is more important than ever to be here, because we are at your side, we are close to you, and our friendship will last a long time.”
Lawmaker Constance Le Grip, a member of Macron’s party who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, told reporters the delegation came “to show the deep friendship between Taiwan and France.”
At the end of a recent visit to China – during which he urged China to put pressure on Russia over the war in Ukraine – Macron spoke to reporters about the need for Europe to exercise “strategic autonomy” and avoid being drawn into a U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan.
The remarks, which drew criticism in the United States, also stoked controversy in France, where a number of lawmakers have close ties with Taiwan.
Republican Party lawmaker Olivier Marleix told France Info last week that Macron’s remarks were not just a “signal” to the Chinese but “by extension a signal given to the Russians on Ukraine.”
“Going to China claiming to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine and, on the way back, implying that we could give in on that of Taiwan, what consistency!” Marleix tweeted.
However the leader of the leftist movement Rebellious France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, agreed with Macron’s comments on Taiwan, saying in a tweet that it was “good to refuse to be a vassal of the U.S.A.”
Laurent Amelot, associate researcher with the Thomas More Institute, wrote in a Le Figaro column that week that “by claiming that France and the E.U. have no interest in getting involved in this conflict, the president is weakening relations with our Western allies and giving Beijing a gift.”
In Brussels this week, members of the European Parliament are discussing E.U. policy towards China. Some have called it naïve to argue that Taiwan is not an issue that should concern Europe, and have stressed that any attempt by China to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait would not be acceptable to the E.U.
“To protect our freedom, democrats must stand together in defense of a rules-based world, both in Ukraine and Taiwan,” German MEP Manfred Weber tweeted earlier. “We must strengthen our alliance with the United States!”
After Macron’s comments were reported, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international cross-party group of lawmakers including French senators Olivier Cadic and Andre Gattolin, voiced its dismay about what they called “ill-judged remarks.”
“With Beijing ramping up military exercises in the South China Sea, and showing continuing support for Russian aggression in Ukraine, this is the worst possible moment to send a signal of indifference over Taiwan,” the group said in a statement.
“History is a harsh judge of past efforts to appease authoritarians. Unfortunately the president shows little sign of having learned the lessons of the past.”
IPAC said Macron was not speaking for Europe. The alliance would work to ensure that the remarks were “a wake-up call to democratic governments to do everything possible to ensure that Beijing’s aggressive stance towards Taiwan receives the hostile reception it deserves from the international community.”
France recognized the People’s Republic of China in 1964 and has only quasi-diplomatic ties with Taiwan, with representative offices in each other’s capital that operate in lieu of embassies.
Although France holds to a “one-China” policy, it has also provided military aid to Taiwan, angering Beijing in the process.
In 2021 French lawmakers adopted a non-binding resolution calling on their government to support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations like the World Health Organization’s annual World Health Assembly.
The Chinese Embassy in Paris said the move violated the one-China principle, interfered in China’s “internal affairs” and bolstered support for “secessionists” in Taiwan. Taiwan hailed the vote as a “major historical breakthrough.”