Swiss parliament votes for closer ties with Taiwan

Hotstpot of gepolitical tensions: Taipei. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Parliamentarians have voted in favour of strengthening relations with their counterparts in Taiwan. It’s the latest in a series of political contacts which have irritated China.

The motion passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday aims to boost democracy, promote peace, and generally deepen exchanges between Taiwan and Switzerland, said motion instigator Fabian Molina from the left-wing Social Democratic Party.

+ Switzerland and Taiwan: economically close, politically distant

Molina was previously part of a five-member Swiss-Taiwan parliamentary friendship group which visited Taiwan in February and met with government and parliamentary representatives as well as Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen.

Following their trip, the politicians lauded Taiwan’s “huge potential” and called for it to be better integrated in major international bodies like the World Health Organization; Switzerland, meanwhile, should “deepen cooperation with Taiwan on trade, innovation, culture, technology, research, and education”, they said.

Tricky waters

The visit was criticised by China, which sees Taiwan as one of its provinces, and without the right to state-to-state relations. This is also the foundation of official Swiss relations with Beijing, which are based on the One-China principle, i.e. not recognising Taiwan as a sovereign state.

Parliamentarians from the right, who opposed the motion on Tuesday, said it was unhelpful to normal diplomatic relations, particularly in the tense international situation.

“It’s odd to recognise a parliament by working together institutionally, and that in a state which we don’t actually recognise,” said Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter from the Centre Party. “This seems to me not to be the right approach”.

The government, which repeated its attachment to the One-China policy in April, is not bound by the parliamentary decision.