Showing posts with label #OneChinaPolicy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #OneChinaPolicy. Show all posts

EU Election 2024 - Interview with Billy Kelleher (FF)

European Parliament elections take place across the EU in early June. These will be the tenth direct parliamentary elections since 1979. About 400 million voters are eligible to vote across 27 EU member states. At stake is the make-up of the next European Parliament, the direct link between Europeans and the EU's institutions and it will shape the direction of the EU over the next 5 years on issues like climate, migration, trade and defense.

Ireland is entitled to elect 14 representatives or MEPs across 3 constituencies (see below) to the 720 seat parliament. 

  • Dublin (4 seats)
  • Midlands-North-West (5 seats)
  • South (5 seats)

MEPs generally sit in political groups ranging from left to right, rather than by nationality.

My guest in this episode is Billy Kelleher (@BillyKelleherEU) of Fianna Fail who is up for re-election as an Ireland South MEP and member of the Renew Group. We discuss a range of topics including the future direction of the EU and the influence of the far right, security and trade risks posed by China, and whether Ireland is out of step with the EU on adoption of policy tools and a physical trade presence in Taiwan.

Date of Recording: May 5th, 2024.



Picture of Billy Kelleher of Fianna Fail, the 3 Ireland Constituencies for EU Elections and a Ballot Box with the EU Flag in the background
EU Election 2024 - Interview with Billy Kelleher, Fianna Fail


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Additional information on the topics covered in this episode:

  • 2024 European Parliament election in Ireland - wiki


Note: In the interests of fairness, Perspectives with Neilo reached out to Ireland South electoral candidates from all the main groupings in the European Parliament. We are happy to publish interviews with all those who agreed to participate.

Image Credit: By Spleodrach - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78963601

The China US Blame Game

 In recent months, we've become accustomed to Russia and its supporters blaming their invasion of Ukraine on NATO expansion and US interference in the region, even though Western nations and Ukraine have repeatedly rejected this narrative.

Similarly, in the case of Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party and their supporters blame the United States as the sole agent for escalation of tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

In a recent article by Michael Swaine of the Quincy Institute entitled "The Worrisome Erosion of the One China Policy" published in the National Interest, he frames present tensions as arising over the US refusing to conform to its own One China Policy and instead increasing symbolic and substantive support for Taiwan, thereby provoking China into taking greater escalatory actions.

Swaine's article was taken to task by Brian Hioe (@brianhioe) in New Bloom Magazine in a response entitled "Nevermind China's drills, Quincy Institute Article view America as sole agent of rising tensions".

Brian Hioe is one of the founding editors of New Bloom Magazine and a non-resident Fellow at the University of Nottingham's Taiwan Studies Program. He joins me in this episode of Perspectives with Neilo to discuss his response to Swaine's article, the practicalities of the US One China Policy, opinions of the US in Taiwan, why the CCP prefers a military response to diplomatic outreach with the current Taiwan administration and much more.

Date of Recording: April 26th, 2023.




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Check out the following resources for additional information on the topics covered in this episode:

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