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Visiting German lawmaker calls for peace
The head of a visiting delegation of German lawmakers is reiterating Berlin's opposition to any non-peaceful or unilateral changes to the cross-strait status quo.
Speaking during a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen, Peter Heidt of the Free Democratic Party, said Berlin firmly opposes "changing the cross-strait status quo via means other than peaceful ones and without mutual consent."
Heidt is currently heading a six-member delegation from the Bundestag's Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid to Taiwan. Heidt says the delegation plans to use the trip to gain a first-hand insight into how Taiwan is responding to increasing Chinese military coercion and the role of human rights in this response.
The German lawmaker also says he used his meeting with Tsai to call for the abolition of capital punishment in Taiwan, describing the practice as inhumane "not only to the death row inmates but to judges, and executioners too."
The group of German lawmakers is the second to visit Taiwan this month.
