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German lawmaker calls for peaceful resolution of Taiwan-China conflict

ROC Central News Agency

10/24/2022 02:51 PM

Taipei, Oct. 24 (CNA) The leader of a visiting delegation of German lawmakers reiterated his country's opposition to any nonpeaceful or unilateral changes to the Taiwan-China status quo, during a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in Taipei Monday.

Peter Heidt of the Free Democratic Party, leader of the six-member delegation from the Bundestag's Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid to Taiwan, said Berlin firmly opposed "changing the cross-strait status quo via means other than peaceful ones and without mutual consent."

According to Heidt, the delegation plans to use its trip to gain a first-hand insight into how Taiwan is responding to increasing Chinese military coercion and the role of human rights in this response.

The German lawmaker also used his meeting with Tsai to call for the abolition of capital punishment in Taiwan, describing the practice as inhumane "not only to the death row inmates but to judges, and executioners too."

Taiwan last carried out a prisoner execution in 2020, and there are 38 prisoners currently on death row.

President Tsai thanked Germany for overseeing the issuance of joint statements by the leaders and foreign ministers of the G7 major industrial nations in support of Taiwan.

Germany currently holds the G7's rotating presidency, and Tsai said that the group's public statements showed concern for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

The group of German lawmakers is the second to visit Taiwan this month, following the Oct. 2-6 visit to Taipei of a seven-member delegation headed by German-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group Chairman Klaus-Peter Willsch.

According to Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the delegation will also meet with two ministers without portfolios, Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) and Huang Chih-ta (黃致達), as well as Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and National Human Rights Commission Chairperson Chen Chu (陳菊).

MOFA added that the delegation would visit Taiwan's National Human Rights Museum and discuss human rights cooperation with local NGOs and think tanks.

The other five members of the delegation are Heike Engelhardt and Derya Türk-Nachbaur of the Social Democratic Party, Michael Brand and Carsten Brodesser of the Christian Democratic Union, and Boris Mijatović of the Greens.

(By Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ASG