A Taiwanese vice foreign minister has quietly left for Germany on a lobbying trip to ask Berlin and other European nations to reject a proposal to lift an arms embargo against China, a state-funded news agency said Wednesday. Michael Kau, leading a delegation comprising David Huang, the deputy head of Taiwan's top mainland policy planning body, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), has met figures from various German quarters since Monday, the Central News Agency (CNA) said. It was not immediately known whether those people included government officials. Taiwan and Germany do not maintain official ties. Meetings involving government officials are considered sensitive in the face of pressure from China that none of its allies should have high-level contacts with the island. But the group has held news conferences in Germany to explain Taiwan's position over the proposal to lift the arms embargo against Beijing, CNA said. Huang was quoted by the agency as telling German journalists that if the EU lifts the arms embargo against China, it would be harmful to regional peace and stability, especially when Beijing is enacting a so-called anti-secession law against the island. Beijing, which has regarded Taiwan as a Chinese province despite the fact that they split at the end of a civil war in 1949, is deliberating the anti-secession law to give it the legal basis to attack the island if it formally declares independence. Taiwan has cried foul, saying the law would unilaterally change the cross-strait status quo because it defines the two sides as a unified nation. --SP 1503 Local Time 1203 GMT
