You Si-kun: Grateful to France for its support to Taiwan to defend Indo-Pacific peace

Accompanied by Legislators Tsai Shih-ying, Wu I-ding, Chiu Chen-yuan and Chiu Hsien-chih, Secretary General Lin Jih-jia, Consultant Chou Ya-shu, Secretariat Director Kung Ping-chih, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aleander T.R. Yu, President You met French Senate’s Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces Committee Vice Chair André Gattolin, Andre Vallini, Taiwan Friendship Group Vice Chaiman Andre Vallini, Senator Étienne Blanc, Senator Annick Jacqueme and Frech Office in Taipei Director Jean-François Casabonne-Masonnave at 10 a.m. on July 26.

In his remarks, President You first showed his welcome to the delegation on behalf of the Legislative Yuan. He recalled the warm welcome he and his delegation received when he visited France in July last year. He was delighted to see his old friend Vice Chair André Gattolin, Vice Chaiman Andre Vallini and Senator Annick Jacqueme once again. President You also thanked the French government for changing the column of nationality into birthplace on the French Language Proficiency Test Certificate, so that Taiwanese will not be misunderstood as Chinese.

President You further stated that the French make tremendous contributions to human civilization, such as Montesquieu and the Separation of Power, Rousseau and the Sovereignty of the People, Voltaire and Freedom of Speech and French Revolution’s spirits of liberty, equality and fraternity. All of them are the universal values of mankind. France also follows closely on Indo-Pacific peace and development. Recently, President Macron reiterated his opposition against any aggression on the issues of Taiwan and sent warships to navigate through Taiwan Strait to demonstrate its firm position and determination to defend democracy, freedom and protection of the Indo-Pacific pace and stability.

President You pointed out that Taiwan continues to consolidate its democracy to fight against China’s threats to Taiwan. When he was invited to the Hudson Institute for a keynote speech in May this year, he reminded the audience that “Taiwan’s is not the CCP’s ultimate goal or final destination, but a steppingstone for China to become a global hegemony. After Xi Jinping took power, he discarded Deng Xiaoping’s notion of hiding capabilities and biding time, and Hu Jintao’s ideal of China’s peaceful rise. Xi proclaimed the Chinese Dream and stated, “The broad Pacific Ocean is vast enough to embrace both China and the United States.” He has promoted the Belt and Road Initiative, violated a promise to President Obama to not militarize islands in the South China Sea, began practicing wolf-warrior diplomacy, and upended Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” status quo. When Xi met with Russian President Valdimir Putin on March 23, the two men reached a consensus to promote changes the likes of which have not been seen in a century. His intention to upend the international order could not be clearer. 

President You further elaborated that why is it the CCP that poses a global threat? The root cause is the nature of the CCP regime, which is both communist and authoritarian. It believes in traditional Confucian ideas such as “There cannot be two suns in the sky, nor two emperors on the earth,” and “All land under heaven belongs to the king, and all people are subject to him.” The whole world, therefore, is subject to one ruler. Accordingly, we can say that protecting Taiwan equals to defending both Europe and the US. To ensure Taiwan’s security is to ensure the global public interest. In addition, US President Bide also pointed out that “China indeed has the ambition to replace the US to become a global hegemony,” proving that the US has changed its view on China. Over the past year, Taiwan extended the compulsory military service, increase national defense budget and other measures to enhance its self-defense capabilities. We hope that our friends in France and the entire global democratic camp will continue to support Taiwan to safeguard mankind civilization and universal values. President You concluded his remarks by thanking the distinguished guests for their support to Taiwan once again, wished Taiwan and France everlasting bilateral relations and the delegation a safe and pleasant trip. 

Vice Chair André Gattolin opened his remarks by conveying greetings to President You and legislators. He stated that Taiwan is a role model of democracy but modestly claims itself a young democracy. As a matter of fact, Taiwan abides by all human rights rules and regulations, actively participated in international affairs. As a French, he admires Taiwan’s achievements. As a democracy with rapid development, Taiwan has remarkable achievements in many fields, such as economics, high-tech and innovation. He is impressed whenever he visits Taiwan. 

He also expressed his pleasure to meet President You once again. He was impressed by the formal and warm welcome President You received when he visited in France and the warm feedback after his speech in the Czech Republic. He expressed his respect to the efforts made by President You for promoting parliamentary diplomacy. He stated that the power of the French parliamentarians is not as big as the administration, but they will continue to actively promote Taiwan-France relations. There is good news that is the number of Senate Friendship Group of Taiwan has reached 42, outnumbers that of China’s 40. This marks a significant progress.

He continued to state that President Emmanuel Macron knew their visit to Taiwan and was very positive about it. He will continue to suggest President Macron to send ministerial-level officials to visit Taiwan for a higher level of dialogue. In response to President You’s remarks about China’s confrontation against the west, he stated that Europe is also hostile to Vladimir Putin, but he did not think that it equals to East-West confrontation. He believes that East and West still share many values. The current cause of confrontation is the confrontation between democracy and autocracy. As a matter of fact, East and West can coexist. He concluded his remarks by wishing France and Taiwan coprosperity and everlasting relationship.

The meeting was concluded at 11:20 a.m. after exchange views on cooperation and exchange of gifts and group photos. (E)