China denounces German lawmakers visit to Taiwan
China has decried German lawmakers' visit to Taiwan and urged them "not to send wrong signals" to separatist forces.
"The German side is not allowed to have any official contacts with Taiwan, and that also applies to German parliamentarians. This principle is part of the One China policy," said a statement by the Chinese Embassy in Berlin.
The embassy criticized statements made by Free Democratic Party (FDP) lawmakers ahead of their visit to Taiwan and stressed that China will continue to oppose efforts to undermine its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Beijing considers Taiwan "an inseparable part of Chinese territory" and has strongly urged other nations to avoid direct relations with Taipei.
"Questioning China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity under the guise of supporting 'democracy and freedom' and inciting division and confrontation is a grave violation of the UN Charter," the Chinese embassy said.
"The FDP and its deputies should never lose sight of the original intention of both countries (Germany and China) when establishing diplomatic relations. They have a duty to assume their responsibility as the governing party. This is the only way to ensure that relations between China and Germany remain on a stable course in the long term!"
Senior lawmakers from the FDP on Monday announced on Twitter that they arrived in Taiwan for talks with politicians and NGO representatives, to demonstrate Germany's solidarity with Taiwan amid the rising military threat from China.
The parliamentary delegation consists of senior figures, including Marie-Agnes StrackZimmermann, Defense Committee chair; Renata Alt, Human Rights committee chair; and FDP's Vice Chairman Johannes Vogel. The probusiness FDP is a junior partner in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's left-liberal coalition government.
Stock markets mostly advanced Friday as traders awaited key US jobs data and after news of falling inflation in the eurozone.
Global equities have enjoyed a largely solid start to the new year, though Wall Street slid Thursday on expectations that the Federal Reserve is in no rush to stop hiking US interest rates. A "strong jobs report today would further justify such a hawkish approach and perhaps send risk assets into a bit of a tailspin", noted Craig Erlam, senior analyst at Oanda trading group.
The Fed along with central banks worldwide last year kickstarted a string of aggressive rate hikes to battle decades-high inflation.
Official data Friday showed that annual inflation in the eurozone dropped for a second month in a row, to 9.2 percent in December.
It was the first decline into single digits since September and while inflation shows signs of cooling around the world, it remains at sky-high levels. Long-running fears that monetary policy tightening would cause a recession were brought back into play by figures Thursday showing more jobs than expected were created in the US private sector last month.
The reading from payroll firm ADP indicated the labour market remained tight-putting upward pressure on wages. It makes the release of Friday's US non-farm payrolls much more important.
"Although ADP has not been the sharpest predictor for NFP, any incremental evidence that the labour market remains hot supports the Fed's hawkish impulse," said SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes.