The German parliamentary delegation led by Chairman of the German Parliamentary Friends-Taiwan Group Weirsch (middle, Klaus-Peter Willsch) arrived in Taiwan early on the morning of the 2nd to visit Taiwan for 6 days. My representative in Germany, Xie Zhiwei (right), accompanied him to Taiwan, and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yu Daya (left) Meet at the airport.

(Photo by reporter Yao Jiexiu)

[Central News Agency] Six members of the German parliament from different parties arrived in Taiwan today for a visit.

They said that visiting Taiwan at a time when China is escalating its threat to Taiwan is not only to express support for Taiwan, but also to tell China that it should not interfere with normal exchanges between Congress.

"The problem is not this peaceful journey to a democracy, but a nervous dictatorship," said Klaus-Peter Willsch, head of the German parliamentary group, DPA reported. The regime's overreaction with missiles and military aggression."

Please read on...

"The exchange of parliamentarians cannot be used as an excuse for the Chinese Communists to engage in rattling behavior, nor can it be used as an excuse for further violations of Taiwan's territorial waters and airspace," he said.

Welsh said that as a German congressional group friendly to Taiwan, they maintain foreign policy relations with Taiwan's Legislative Yuan.

"For this purpose, delegations come to Taiwan from time to time. We also receive delegations from Taiwan's Legislative Yuan in our Bundestag," he said.

Till Steffen, a Green Party politician in the delegation, told Deutsche Welle's Chinese channel that it is important to show friendship with Taiwan at times like these.

Stephen said that Germany's policies towards Taiwan and China have not changed over the years, and it would be different if members of Congress held back from visiting Taiwan.

"If we don't visit Taiwan at a time when China is threatening Taiwan, it will be a negative signal for Taiwan," he said, adding that China should not "interfere" with the cooperation.

After U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in early August, China held a large-scale military exercise near Taiwan.

This is the second major European delegation to visit Taiwan after that. A French parliamentary delegation visited Taiwan in early September.

The Human Rights Committee of the German Bundestag also plans to visit Taiwan at the end of October.

Among Germany's Asian trading partners, Taiwan ranks fifth, and Taiwan does not trade as much with other EU member states as it does with Germany.

Last year, the trade volume of goods between the two countries exceeded 20 billion US dollars.