Switzerland's lower house of parliament has voted to tighten ties with the legislature in Taiwan, a move that could further rankle China after recent visits by Western lawmakers to the island.
The Swiss National Council voted 97-87 with eight abstentions late Tuesday to instruct parliamentary offices to “strengthen” relations with Taiwan's Yuan legislature, as a way to help strengthen democracy, peace and stability, and deepen economic, political, scientific and cultural exchanges between Switzerland and Taiwan.
Left-leaning parties generally supported the measure, while the main right-wing and free-market parties opposed it. The measure only relates to the lower house; the upper house — the Council of States — doesn't necessarily have to line up for it to take effect, according to the Swiss parliament's press office.
The issue now heads to a foreign affairs committee to explore how to put the measure to work.
If carried out, the Swiss gesture would be a new tactic by foreign lawmakers to support the self-ruled island democracy in the face of intimidation by the mainland’s ruling Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to invade.
The measure has been championed by Socialist lawmaker Fabian Molina, who led a parliamentary delegation to Taiwan in February that met with President Tsai Ing-wen.
Lawmakers from other countries, including Germany and the United States, have taken part in similar delegations. All come from countries whose governments have diplomatic relations with Beijing rather than with Taiwan, which the mainland claims as part of its territory.
Chinese officials in Beijing and Switzerland did not immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Recently, China has stepped up its campaign to isolate Taiwan by peeling away some of the island’s few remaining foreign diplomatic partners, most of them poor and in Africa and Latin America.
In March, Honduras became the latest government to break ties with Taiwan and switch official recognition to Beijing.
