The Legislative Yuan

Press Release

September 1, 2023

President You attends the plaque unveiling ceremony of the Department of International Affairs of the Legislative Yuan.

You Si -kun: It is hoped to create a new peak for Taiwan's parliamentary diplomacy after the Department of International Affairs established archives to preserve the results of parliamentary diplomacy.

Accompanied by Democratic Progressive Party Whip Ker Chien-ming, Kuomintang Party Whip Tseng Min-chung, Taiwan People's Party Whip Chiu Chen-yuan, New Power Party Whip Chen Jiau-hua, Legislators Chiang Yun-chang, Wu Yu-chin, Wu Hsin-ying, Lin Ching-yi, Chuang Jui-hsiung, Hsu Chih-chieh, Chen Ching-min, Huang Shi-chieh, Wen Yu-hsia, Hsieh Yi-fong and Lo Chih-cheng, Secretary General Lin Jih-jia, Deputy Secretary General Kao Ming-chiu, Consultant Wang Chuan-chong, Consultant Chou Ya-shu, Secretariat Director Kung Ping-chieh, Department of International Affairs Director Lin Chen-fu  President You attended the plaque unveiling ceremony at 10 a.m. on September 1. Former Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Roy Chiun Lee, Overseas Community Affairs Council Deputy Minister Ruan Jhao-syong were present to participate in the event.

In his remarks, President You stated that it marked the registration day of the eighth session of the Legislative Yuan and also the operation of the Department of International Affairs. It was the first time for the Legislative Yuan to have a competent agency to handle parliamentary diplomacy. Therefore, he invited all to witness this important day. He thanked everyone for being there.

He continued to state that because of Taiwan’s special status in the international community,  parliamentary diplomacy plays a critical role. When he took office on February 1, 2020, he introduced the idea of democratic alliance. At that time, international affairs task force was established as the precedent of the Department of International Affairs. Over the past three years, a lot of experiences had been accumulated. 172 issues of weekly news had been published. He stressed that pandemic erupted during this Legislative Yuan, but parliamentary diplomacy still had fruitful results. President You thanked the entire staff of the Legislative Yuan for their hard work and the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Overseas Community Affairs Council.

President You stated that the Legislative Yuan seizes every opportunity to promote Taiwan’s democracy. In December 2021, when the pandemic was tense, two-day 2021 Open Parliament Forum was held. Parliamentarians, experts, scholars, participated in discussions in person or on line. Taiwan marks the first non-OGP member to host the Open Parliament Forum. He also mentioned about the visits of foreign dignitaries as of the end of August this year, including Czech Senate president and Chamber of Deputies speaker, and president of Guatemala delivered speeches in the Chamber of the Legislative Yuan. In a total of 38 countries, 114 visiting delegations and 1,386 dignitaries had been received so far with fruitful results. President You also mentioned about his five foreign visits since the pandemic subsided last July. Among which, the parliaments of the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and France provided him with protocol equivalent to diplomatic ally. It was significant to see so many new records reached for parliamentary diplomacy. In addition to Europe, he also led delegations to Japan and the US. To deliver speeches at the US Religious Freedom Summit and Hudson Institute to deepen Taiwan-US exchanges. With the joint efforts of 72 Legislative parliamentary amity associations members, exchanges and mutual visits had been resumed to promote relations between Taiwan and other countries.

President You stated that there are still many US agencies that Taiwan’s government officials are not allowed to enter. Parliamentary diplomacy can play its role in this regard. In response to international situation, in the eleventh meeting of the seventh session of the tenth Legislative Yuan on May 12, with the support of both the ruling and opposition parties, the amendment to Organization Act of the Legislative Yuan was passed with three readings to establish the Department of International Affairs. The presidential decree was promulgated on May 31. In the future, the Department will be in charge of five areas of parliamentary diplomacy, overseas community and overseas businesspeople services, international think tanks, international organizations, parliamentary amity associations to assist in overall planning of parliamentary diplomacy policy to allocate parliamentary diplomacy resources, information of different countries, international connection data bank and resource utilization. It will also continue to cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Overseas Community Affairs Council to rally support to Taiwan and to expand parliamentary diplomacy’s effects to promote Taiwan’s democracy to the world.

President You stated that Taiwan’s democracy is the result of a century pursuit. This year marks the centennial anniversary of Security Police Incident as well as the 30th anniversary of Democratic Congress. In this significant year, the inception the Department of International Affairs will create a new milestone for Taiwan’s congress. He also expressed sincere respect and appreciation to former Speaker Wang Jin-pyng and Su Jia-chuan for promoting parliamentary diplomacy. He wished all distinguished guests good health and peace.

Former Speaker Wang Jin-pyng expressed his honor to be invited to participate in the plaque unveiling ceremony. He stated that as the international situation continues to change, Taiwan’s diplomacy confronted more challenges. Parliamentary diplomacy indeed can complement with not having diplomatic relations with countries to promote friendship between Taiwan and other countries. When he was the Speaker, he attended many presidential inaugurations and important international event. According to the Secretariat statistics, he led delegation to Japan for 22 times, to US for presidential inauguration twice. He also visited as far as Paraguay. He had been to almost every Central and Southern American countries. The European Union invited him to participated in events and deliver a speech. Over the decades, the Legislative Yuan devoted itself to promoting parliamentary diplomacy. All of us put our country as priority to enhance substantive or official diplomatic relations.

Speaker Wang further pointed out that Sine the 225 seats were halved to 113 since the seventh Legislative Yuan and single electoral district was adopted. This meant that every Legislator needed to spend more time in taking care of their districts by providing electoral services. They are forced to reduce their time and energy to participate in parliamentary diplomacy, making Taiwan’s parliamentary diplomacy more difficult. In addition, if a legislator is not reelected, it would be a pity that the previous connection would be disrupted. Therefore, it is very important for President You to establish the Department of International Affairs. In the future, professional assistance would be provided regardless of receiving foreign dignitary, foreign visit interpretation, arranging visiting program. In addition, collection of  international news will serve as important reference for promoting parliamentary diplomacy. Speaker Wang concluded by expressing his delight to come back to the Legislative Yuan. Ge admired President You’s determination. He thanked everyone for making the Department possible.

Democratic Progressive Party Whip Ker Chien-ming expressed his honor to be co-worker with Speaker Wang and President You. When President You initiated the proposal to establish the Department of International Affairs during cross-party negotiation, it was the least controversial. He pointed out that in the general budget of the central government for next fiscal year, only NT$39 million is allocated to the Department, accounting only 0.00003%. With such a limited budget, it will have profound impact in the future. Party Whip Ker believed this is trend to set up the Department. It is the result of the collective efforts. He had high expectation on the accumulation of momentum for parliamentary diplomacy. 

Kuomintang Party Whip Tseng Ming- chung stated that he wanted to echo what Speaker Wang’s statement, there was no specific agency in charge of parliamentary diplomacy and mainly depended on the assistance of the resources and manpower of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but it was nor enough. Therefore, KMT Party Caucus fully supported the inception of the Department. Although the budget was only thirty plus million. KMT will full support for increasing manpower or budget with the condition that it should be cost effective to further promote the Republic of China (Taiwan) to world stage to make more friends in such complex international political environment and diplomatic disadvantages.

Taiwan People’s Party Whip Chiu Chen-yuan stated that since US-China Trade War in 2018,
Covid-19 and Russian-Ukraine War in 2020 all showed that international situation continue to change. During the pandemic, Taiwan become more internationalization and digitalization. Ge pointed out that he was once Taiwanese businessperson, and served as secretary general of World Taiwan Chamber of Commerce. He made efforts to promote overseas community affairs and economic and trade diplomacy. After being a legislator, he found parliament plays an even more important role in promoting parliamentary diplomacy. It was a pity that Legislative Yuan did not have a specialized agency to do relevant work and assist in extending the connections of parliamentary diplomacy. With President You’s farsightedness and former Speaker Wang’s solid foundation, the Department of International  is established, Taiwa People’s Party will render full support. TPP believes that diplomacy should transcend political party, because this is national affairs. We need to assist the Republic of China (Taiwan) to engage with the world. Therefore, no matter how busy he was, he would find time to participate in parliamentary diplomacy events to support Taiwan’s parliamentary diplomacy with concrete actions. He concluded his remarks that he hoped the Department will collect information and data with professionalism to continue cordial relations with political parties and parliaments, and cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Community Affairs Council and to enhance parliamentary diplomacy.

New Power Party Deputy Whip Chen Jiau-hua stated that facing China’s pressure, she cited north wind and the Aesop fable as an example. The stronger China’s pressure, Taiwan’s diplomacy will be more vibrant and enhanced During the tenure of President You, the number of visiting delegations and foreign visits of legislators had been increasing. She was 0please0d to see the Department of International Affairs  as established to specialize in parliamentary affairs. She hoped that the Department will provide more assistance to legislators to promote and strengthen parliamentary diplomacy to be connected with the international community.

President You took the occasion to introduc International Affairs Department Director Li Chen-fu to the distinguished guests and the media. President You stated that Director Lin was transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His diplomatic profession would be heavily relied in the future to facilitate communication with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Responding to China’s question about China’s standard map that included Taiwan, President You stated that China not only included Taiwan, but also disputed territories with surrounding countries. The international community criticized China’s move. He stated that in accordance with United Nations 2758 Resolution or San Francisco Peace Treaty. Taiwan and Chia are not subject to each other. He condemned China’ recent move.