World
Protecting Taiwan is a ‘life-and-death matter,’ warns Taipei’s envoy
Chatting with Euronews, Remus Li-Kuo Chen spoke of “devastating and catastrophic repercussions” if the established order within the Taiwan Strait is altered.
Defending Taiwan’s democracy towards a possible Chinese language invasion might be “really a life-and-death matter” that can require the involvement of the complete worldwide neighborhood, warns Remus Li-Kuo Chen, Taipei’s consultant to the European Union.
“That is really our future and future,” Chen informed Euronews in an unique interview.
“If there’s any type of undesirable, unprovoked escalation of tensions or any type of warfare situation occurring within the Taiwan Strait, we could have the strongest ever resolve and willpower to defend our personal nation, to safeguard our territory and our democratic lifestyle.”
Chen’s stark phrase of warning comes within the midst of a steep deterioration in relations between the West and China over Beijing’s perceived pro-Russian positioning on the Ukraine warfare and its continued refusal to sentence the invasion. The battle in Europe has renewed consideration over Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China considers a breakaway province that ought to sooner or later be introduced along with the mainland.
The narrative about reunification has sparked fears of a Chinese language army intervention towards Taiwan, a call that Chen stated would unleash “devastating and catastrophic repercussions” for the entire world, probably grounding worldwide commerce to a halt.
The common army manoeuvres that Beijing carries within the Taiwan strait, which Chen described as “army provocations” and a “stress marketing campaign” forward of the island’s 2024 presidential election, have solely lent plausibility to the worst-case situation.
“Now we have to protect the peace and stability on this time and likewise safeguard the liberty and democracy of Taiwan as a result of, actually, the destruction of Taiwan’s democracy might be a grave defeat of the world’s democracies,” Chen stated.
Throughout his interview with Euronews, the Taipei Consultant drew a parallel between Ukraine and Taiwan, two democracies underneath fixed risk of being encroached upon by their autocratic neighbours. As within the case of Kyiv, whose untiring resistance depends on Western provides of ammunition and monetary help, Taipei would too require international support if push got here to shove.
“Taiwan’s case is sort of comparable: Taiwan is small, China is large,” stated Chen.
“That is really really a life-and-death matter for our Taiwanese individuals. And we aren’t, after all, giving up any type of alternatives that we will get any serving to hand. It is apparent that, if that type of situation occurs, we can’t do it alone.”
The Taiwanese authorities and American intelligence officers have pinpointed 2027 because the yr Beijing would possibly order a full-scale operation to invade the island and produce it underneath the management of the Chinese language Communist Celebration.
“We realized from the teachings that Ukrainian individuals are actually going through as a result of nobody can predict when the management in Beijing would take any type of drastic transfer. Their centralised grip on the facility is changing into increasingly unpredictable,” Chen stated in regards to the projections.
In an effort to deal with the fraught scenario within the Taiwan Strait, the envoy suggests two simultaneous strains of motion. On the one hand, Western democracies ought to ship a “highly effective message of deterrence” and clarify that any Chinese language intervention will include an “unaffordable value.” However, Taipei and Beijing ought to discuss issues out.
“They (China) mustn’t proceed down this highway, this course of coercion, economically talking, and likewise militarily intimidating Taiwan however to proceed to consider different actions of getting the resumption of dialogue. Let’s sit down and discuss on an equal footing,” Chen stated.
“And why not even have the profit and well-being of the 2 sides of the Taiwan Strait to be well-maintained? They (China) positively have all the doable methods to make peace and likewise stability within the Taiwan Strait maintained.”
The Harvard-educated diplomat insisted that Taiwan wouldn’t search to make “unilateral modifications” to the established order, a time period that refers to a intentionally ambiguous coverage underneath which Taipei rejects reunification with China, using pressure and, crucially, the pursuit of independence.
This method can also be defended by the overwhelming majority of the worldwide neighborhood, together with the European Union, which is eager on sustaining shut commerce ties with each side of the Taiwan Strait. The apply, nevertheless, has left Taiwan with out recognition as an unbiased, sovereign state, regardless of its system of liberal democracy and capitalist economic system that put the island on par with Western nations.
Beijing carefully screens any diplomatic overture to Taiwan and is fast to denounce any nations that seem to defy the so-called One China coverage. This was the case when Lithuania allowed the opening of an workplace – in apply, a de facto embassy – underneath the identify of Taiwan, quite than Taipei, a departure from the same old diplomatic protocol.
China reacted furiously and retaliated by downgrading diplomatic relations and imposing a customs block on Lithuanian-made merchandise, a transfer that pressured the European Fee to file a authorized case earlier than the World Commerce Group (WHO). The punishment, although, did not have a dissuasive impact: current months have seen delegations of lawmakers from France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the European Parliament make official journeys to Taipei in a bid to strengthen cooperation.
“We wish to be sure that whichever nation within the EU or another components of the world that wish to deepen ties with Taiwan is their sovereign state’s discretion and determination, which shouldn’t be dictated by another exterior celebration or forces,” Chen stated concerning the Lithuanian instance.
A brand new business dispute is now looming as Washington encourages allies to ban exports of superior semiconductors to China, a step the Netherlands has already determined to take. Taiwan, the world’s main producer of microchips, finds itself on the crossroads of the conflict between know-how and geopolitics, additional intensifying scrutiny over the island’s future.
“The entire world will get to know that with out Taiwan taking part in this function to produce all these chips, it will likely be unimaginable any type of regular operation for our financial prosperity,” Chen stated, warning in regards to the “misuse” of semiconductors in the event that they fall within the arms of “authoritarian regimes.”
“You haven’t any concept whether or not or not they’re going to be utilizing these (chips) to kill harmless individuals worldwide.”
World
Egypt Sees Its Refugees as a Problem and an Opportunity
In easier times for Egypt’s refugees, Azza Mostafa, a pro-government TV anchor, had nothing but generous words for the many thousands of Syrians who had built new lives in Egypt after their own country imploded into civil war in 2011.
“I’d like to say to our Syrian families and our brothers in Egypt,” she said in a 2019 broadcast, “you’ve truly brought light to Egypt.”
But there she was on her show in June, fulminating against Egypt’s growing number of outsiders — an echo of the country’s leaders, whose policy toward refugees and migrants has hardened as they wrestle with an economic crisis made worse by wars in neighboring Gaza, Sudan and Libya.
“This has become unbearable,” Ms. Mostafa said, accusing migrants of driving up rents and promoting female genital mutilation. “There are many acts of overstepping bounds. Is that acceptable? After we opened our country for them?”
Egypt long made it easy for foreigners of all kinds to live and work in the country, largely without interference, whether they were refugees, migrant workers or Westerners escaping coronavirus lockdowns.
The past 13 years have brought a near unbroken stream of newcomers fleeing conflict to the country that is known among Arabs as the “mother of the world.” That includes not just Syrians but also Sudanese, Yemenis, Eritreans and, most recently, Palestinians from Gaza.
Egypt’s lax immigration rules meant many never formally registered as refugees or received official permission to stay long-term, yet managed to stitch themselves almost seamlessly into the country, supporting themselves and sometimes starting businesses.
Since Sudan’s civil war drove a surge of refugees to Egypt starting in 2023, however, the impoverished government in Cairo has complained louder and louder about the burden of foreigners. It rapidly tightened its policies — hoping, analysts and diplomats say, to win more support from international backers eager to prevent migration to their own countries.
Egypt says it spends $10 billion each year on its nine million refugees, according to officials and government-controlled media (though experts say both numbers are greatly exaggerated), all while Egyptians endure soaring prices and subsidy cuts.
Years of government overspending, reliance on imports and policies that neglected private-sector growth left the country’s finances in precarious shape before the wars in Ukraine and Gaza sent them crashing. Egypt lost $7 billion in crucial revenue from the Suez Canal in 2024 as the conflict in Gaza has squeezed shipping in the Red Sea, according to government officials.
With Egypt deep in debt and hard-pressed to pay for imports such as wheat and energy, the currency has crashed, while some goods have become difficult to find.
Ahmed Abu Al-Yazid, the head of a government-owned sugar firm, the Delta Sugar Company, blamed refugees for a sugar shortage that experts link to the economic crisis. The president accused them of draining Egypt’s precious water. On social media, pro-government accounts — some of which appeared to be fake — accused Sudanese refugees of driving up rents and promoting female genital mutilation.
A crackdown soon followed the accusations, according to migrants, refugees and their advocates.
Sudanese refugees have been rounded up in police sweeps, detained and summarily deported. Syrians who have lived in Egypt for years have been told to pay thousands of dollars to stay. Many remain hesitant to return, despite the fall of the Assad regime in December, until the situation stabilizes.
Foreign workers from Asia and from other parts of Africa now face extra hurdles to keep their legal status, and in some cases, have been arrested to compel them to pay high fees, advocates say.
Last month, Egypt passed a law that would hand responsibility for screening refugees and others to the government, instead of to the United Nations refugee agency.
Government officials said the measure would ensure a wide array of refugee rights. Critics of the move, however, said that it would become far harder for refugees to gain protection or access to health care and schools. The law also empowers the government to revoke refugee status on vague grounds such as breaches of national security, political activity or violations of Egyptian social customs.
Abu Saleh, 32, a Syrian who works in a small Cairo grocery, said he had lived in the city for 13 years “without a single issue” until he discovered in July that he could no longer enroll his son in school without a residence permit.
Just to renew his family’s tourist visas, he said, he was told that he would have to return to Syria and pay $2,000 per person in fees — a process he would have to repeat every six months.
“Egypt has been there for us all along,” said Abu Saleh, who asked to be identified by the name he uses around town to avoid possible repercussions. “I’d like to appeal to the government of Egypt: Give us residence, even if it’s a little more expensive. We’re facing tough conditions.”
Egypt has not explained its hardening attitude toward foreigners. But analysts and migrant advocates tie it to the economic crisis, which has generated widespread bitterness and undermined President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s rule.
The newcomers make convenient scapegoats for Egyptians’ hardships, rights groups say. Immigration fees, charged in dollars, can supply some of the foreign currency that Egypt badly needs. And foreigners are also valuable pawns in Egypt’s quest for more financial support from its international partners, rights groups say.
“They think, ‘How can these people be useful for the government?’” said Nour Khalil, executive director of the Refugees Platform in Egypt, which advocates for migrants’ rights.
The U.N. refugee agency counts about 818,000 registered refugees in Egypt, who are entitled to free public health care and education. There are likely many more unregistered refugees, though analysts and aid workers dispute the figure reaches nine million.
The benefits that registered refugees receive mean that Egypt “is treating them like Egyptians, despite the fact that we are not a rich country,” the foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, said at a news conference last month. “There is no country in the world assuming these responsibilities and challenges like here in Egypt. We don’t have one single refugee camp — they are fully integrated in society.”
Refugee advocates agree that Egypt needs more resources. Unlike other countries in the region, including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, where the United States, the United Nations and the European Union have poured billions into supporting refugees, Egypt has not received significant funds to help house Syrian or other refugees.
That is changing.
As the war in Gaza has pounded Egypt’s finances, Western backers have rushed to Egypt’s aid, anxious to prevent an economic collapse in the Arab world’s most populous country, analysts and diplomats say. A crash in Egypt could further destabilize the Middle East and send a deluge of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, where there is heavy public pressure to restrict migration.
The European Union pledged a fast-tracked $8 billion aid package to Egypt in March, echoing deals the bloc has struck with Mauritania, Tunisia and Turkey that funded migration enforcement in those countries.
Other backers, including the International Monetary Fund, have sent billions more to stabilize Egypt’s economy.
Critics say the European pact with Egypt, like the bloc’s other migration deals, is enabling rights abuses by rewarding Mr. el-Sisi’s authoritarianism and potentially funding the current crackdown on migrants.
Groups including Amnesty International and the Refugees Platform in Egypt have documented what they say is a pattern of mass arbitrary arrests and unlawful deportations of Sudanese refugees — some detained as they were smuggled across the border, others rounded up during random sweeps of predominantly Sudanese neighborhoods.
Some Syrians, too, have been expelled, Mr. Khalil of the refugees platform said. His group has also documented more than 50 arrests of foreign workers, some of whom already had residency, who were held until they paid $1,000 in fees and fines, he said.
An atmosphere of fear has brought throngs of Sudanese to the doorstep of the U.N. refugee agency in Cairo, seeking formal protection. But refugee status can take months, if not years, to obtain: Appointments to begin the process are not available until late 2025. And some of the Sudanese who have been detained and deported, Mr. Khalil said, held some form of U.N. identification, casting doubt on whether the organization could guarantee security.
Among those waiting outside one morning was Mohammed Abdelwahab, 36. By the time he and his family tried to cross the border from Sudan this spring, Egypt had tightly restricted what had been free-flowing movement between the two countries, so they resorted to smugglers instead.
Without legal papers, Mr. Abdelwahab and his 14-year-old son, Mohanad, collected plastic bottles on Cairo’s streets for a living. Mr. Abdelwahab was looking for better work one day in June when Mohanad disappeared.
Twenty days later, Mohanad resurfaced with a WhatsApp message: He had been rounded up with a group of other Sudanese and deported.
Mr. Abdelwahab had been looking for Mohanad in another city. When he returned to Cairo, his wife and three other children had been evicted for nonpayment.
“It’s indescribable,” he said. “Now they’re all camping out here,” he added, referring to his family and indicating the sidewalk in front of the refugee agency, where groups of other Sudanese waited listlessly in the sun.
Emad Mekay and Rania Khaled contributed reporting.
World
2 Americans arrested in Venezuela on eve of Maduro inauguration over ‘terrorism’ claims
Two U.S. citizens have been arrested in Venezuela on charges that remain unclear, but which President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday claimed were related to the intent to “practice terrorism.”
Maduro said “very high level” Americans that he branded “mercenaries” were part of a group of seven who were arrested, though he did not provide any evidence or details of the arrests.
“Just today we’ve captured seven foreign mercenaries, including two important mercenaries from the United States,” said Maduro, according to a Reuters report.
VENEZUELA’S MADURO TO START THIRD TERM IN OFFICE AMID RIGGED ELECTION: ‘BLATANT VIOLATION’
Maduro – who is set to once again take up the top office on Friday for a third term despite the widely contested results of the July election – said two Colombians and three Ukrainians were also arrested.
He reportedly said his security forces had arrested 125 foreign mercenaries from 25 different countries who he claimed had entered the country with the intent “to practice terrorism against the Venezuelan people.”
A spokesperson from the State Department flatly rejected Maduro’s claims and told Fox News Digital, “Any claims of U.S. involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false.”
“The United States continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela. As Maduro and his associates have shown in the past, they may detain and jail, without justification or due process, U.S. citizens who enter Venezuela,” the spokesperson added.
The identities of the individuals arrested have not been released due to “privacy and other considerations.”
Though the spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the department is “working to gather more information” and remains “concerned” for the Americans detained in Venezuela.
VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER WHO CLAIMED VICTORY OVER MADURO MEETS WITH BIDEN
It remains unclear how many Americans are currently held in Venezuela following the significant prisoner swap in 2023 when Washington and Caracas negotiated the release of dozens of prisoners, including 10 Americans, in exchange for Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of Maduro.
His remarks coincided with a visit to D.C. from opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, who Washington has ardently backed, and who has been declared the president-elect by several nations, including the U.S.
On Monday, President Biden re-emphasized the U.S.’s position on the results of the election – which the Maduro-aligned courts have declared as a victory for the soon-to-be three-term president – and called Gonzalez the “true winner” of the July race.
Venezuelan authorites have refused to release ballot-box results to support their victory claims, while Gonzalez’s team has reportedly published thousands of scanned copies of voting machine results that ballot box observers gathered in the days after the election – reportedly accounting for 80% of the votes cast that showed a win for the opposition leader.
Maduro’s accusations regarding a U.S.-crafted coup plot escalated in the weeks following his internationally contested election and by September the Venezuelan leader was issuing claims that the CIA had orchestrated a plot to overthrow his government and said some 400 rifles had been seized and a Navy SEAL arrested.
Isaias Medina, former Venezuelan diplomat to the United Nations, said Maduro’s latest arrests and comments “align with his patterns of ‘hostage diplomacy.’”
“These accusations, widely viewed as baseless, appear to be another ploy to shift attention away from Maduro’s illegitimate inauguration and suppress dissent ahead of anticipated protests,” Medina explained to Fox News Digital. “By tying foreign nationals to these allegations, Maduro seeks to stoke fear of external interference while creating convenient scapegoats for his failing leadership and attempting to legalize state terrorism.
“The timing of these charges raises concerns about Maduro’s broader strategy,” he added. “Moreover, the theatrical accusations serve to justify crackdowns on opposition protests, intimidating Venezuelans into silence as the country sinks deeper into economic and humanitarian crises.
“These actions underline the lengths Maduro will go to maintain control, despite mounting domestic discontent and growing calls for accountability on the world stage,” Medina said.
The State Department has listed Venezuela as a Level 4 “do not travel” location due to the security threats Americans face there.
World
Lithuania ramps up power grid security ahead of Russia decoupling
Lithuania’s government says it will boost security on its power grids with Poland ahead of planned decoupling from Russian energy system next month.
Lithuania says it’s ramping up security around the country’s electricity link with Poland ahead of their planned disconnection from the Baltic region’s power systems, a Soviet-era grid shared with Russia and Belarus.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas says the government has asked police forces to protect the power link shared with Warsaw.
After recent incidents and suspected sabotage in the Baltic Sea, Vilnius believes it’s crucial to ensure security measures around the LitPol Link are intensified.
Last month, the former Lithuanian government decided to increase security of the LitPol’s converter and transformer station near the city of Alytus in southern Lithuania. That mission was outsourced to a private security company, who were contracted to protect the premises until spring. They would then handover the protection duty to the country’s Public Security Service.
Paluckas, who assumed office on 12 December, announced on Wednesday that his cabinet has decided to begin the transition process next week.
“We evaluate every possible version of sabotage, from cybersecurity to physical actions. Therefore, we deploy the Public Security Service, because it has the most experience in protecting the critical objects. They will replace private security services that have been protecting these objects,” said Paluckas at a press conference.
Lithuania says the Baltic Sea has for some time been “very peculiar” as incidents of undersea infrastructure damage and destruction increased.
“Either it’s intentional or unintentional, the number of these incidents will increase. The Baltic Sea is very peculiar, it’s relatively shallow and cables are not that deep. Therefore, these incidents will repeat, because Russia is using the shadow fleet,” said Giedrimas Jeglinskas, Chairman of Parliament Committee on National Security and Defence.
Vilnius says it is observing “clear and unambiguous attempts by opponents to disrupt” their planned decoupling from the Russian energy systems, according to the office of the Lithuanian prime minister. They offered no further detail as to what those attempts are or who could be behind them.
The government did however provide assurances to the public asserting that there are no scenarios in which the country would be left without power. Officials also added that if disruptions do indeed occur, they will not steer the country away from its long-time goal of disconnecting from the Kremlin’s electricity grid.
“There is no scenario in which Lithuania would be left without electricity. We’ve evaluated all scenarios, including operating without any interconnections. Those reserves have been assessed, and scenarios A, B, C, D and so on have been worked out. Perhaps the most important message that we want to communicate is the following: Despite any provocations that could occur, any incidents, the disconnection from BRELL [Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania] – the Russian electricity grid – is inevitable and will happen in exactly one month,” noted Arnoldas Pikzirnis, Lithuanian Vice Energy Minister.
The Baltic states expect to decouple from the Russian energy grid shared with Belarus on 8 February.
They then plan to take-over the responsibility for running their own national grids which have been seeing years of steady upgrades. The development of those grids was supported by €1.6 billion of European funding.
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