Taiwan’s foreign ministry accused China’s state-run tabloid of defaming its minister’s diplomatic European visits by categorizing them as “dollar diplomacy” to “divide Europe’s China policy.”
Joseph Wu, the Taiwanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, visited Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Belgium for about a week in late October.
During the trip, Wu received a Foreign VIP Laureates medal from the Czech senate, and invited a committee of the European Parliament, the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation, to visit Taiwan.
Chinese foreign ministry has called Wu a “Taiwan ‘independence separatist,’” and China’s state-run Global Times claimed Wu was “collud[ing] with external forces.”
“A state-run media fell to the level of only lying and publishing fake news. This really can only be done in the autocratic and totalitarian communist China,” the statement said. “Only the propaganda media of the Communist Party, which doesn’t respect democracy nor rule of law, has this kind of mindset.”
The statement said that Wu’s European visit focused on the democracy and freedom that Taiwan shares with Europe, as well as promoting bilateral trade and industry co-development.
The Beijing authorities have criticized any state that has ties with Taiwan as “interfering in China’s domestic affairs.”
Wu, Taiwan Foreign Affairs Minister since February 2018, is frequently targeted by Beijing.
The Chinese regime claims Taiwan as its own, despite the fact that Taiwan is a de facto independent country, with its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution.
In past decades, the Beijing regime has tried to block the Taiwanese government from joining international organizations including the World Health Organization.
At present, Taiwan has diplomatic relations with 15 countries globally including in the Pacific, Africa, and Latin America.
