Nicola Beer came to Taiwan with a clear message.

As Vice President of the European Parliament, the FDP politician is the highest-ranking visitor from Brussels to date.

"There must be no February 24 in Asia," she said Tuesday after meeting Taiwan's Premier Su Tseng-chang.

"It's not enough for Europe to regret afterwards, it has to be on the scene early on." Beer wants to do just that for three days, and this Wednesday she will be received by President Tsai Ing-wen.

Beer travels with the backing of the European Parliament, which voted by a large majority in October 2021 for a "comprehensive and enhanced partnership" with Taiwan.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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The EU stands firmly by Taiwan's side, she said at the outset, without shaking the European Union's official one-China policy.

However, she combined this with warnings to Beijing.

His threatening gestures are unacceptable, they would not escape Europe.

"China is igniting peace in the region," she said.

"Any unilateral change in the status quo would be a fatal trigger for a regional fire that could spread worldwide." China's military provocations are being followed with "extreme concern" and the "continuous intrusion into the Taiwanese air defense zone" condemned in the strongest possible terms.

"We hope that the EU will continue to support us and resolutely voice its concerns, sooner and louder," Prime Minister Su said.

China senses a solidarity between Congress and the government

Beer is promoting closer cooperation in Taipei.

"Let's form a democratic belt together," she said.

She supports Taiwan's bid to gain observer status in the World Health Organization - which has long been blocked by China.

She also wants to upgrade the previous EU trade representation, which only has two officials, to an "EU office".

And she advocates an investment agreement between the European Union and Taiwan.

Of course, China strictly rejects this, and the EU Commission is also very cautious on this issue.

While there have been talks for some time between senior EU officials and Taiwanese ministers about closer economic cooperation, particularly on digitization, this is not happening in the context of formal negotiations for an agreement.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry nevertheless reacted cautiously to Beer's visit.

Spokesman Zhao Lijian basically accused the European Parliament of "encouraging the independence forces in Taiwan" with pro-Taiwan resolutions "in recent years" and "poisoning the atmosphere in EU-China relations".

However, he did not go directly into Beer's journey.

China's reaction to a report by the Financial Times, according to which the "speaker" of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, plans to travel to Taiwan in August, was much sharper.

She would be the first American politician in this capacity to visit Taiwan in 25 years.

In 1997, Republican Newt Gingrich was in Taipei.

Beijing's displeasure with the travel plans is compounded by the fact that, like President Joe Biden, Pelosi is a member of the Democratic Party.

China senses a solidarity between Congress and the government.

According to the Financial Times, the White House has reservations about the trip.

Originally, Pelosi had already announced her coming for April, but initially canceled it after a corona infection.

In the event that she should travel, Beijing threatened on Tuesday with "resolute measures".

Such a trip "would seriously violate China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the spokesman said.

"All the consequences" of this would have to be borne by the United States.