00:00Taiwan may have an uphill battle in front of it in the EU.
00:04In 2023, Estonia agreed to let Taipei open a representative office there.
00:10But two years later, no office has been established and talks over the plan seem to have stalled.
00:17A Nikkei Asia report on Monday said the standstill comes down to the office's proposed name.
00:24Taipei would like to include the word Taiwan, but Estonian officials have nixed the idea.
00:29But why? The answer is China.
00:32China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and does not like it when Taiwan refers to itself as a separate entity.
00:40This is not the first time the issue of a Taiwan representative office in Europe has come up.
00:46In 2021, Estonia's neighbor Lithuania allowed Taipei to open a Taiwanese representative office in its capital Vilnius.
00:54China placed sanctions on trade with Lithuania, but Vilnius weathered the storm with support from Germany.
01:01The Nikkei report says Estonia fears Chinese backlash over Taiwan's proposed name.
01:06Taiwan's foreign ministry says it won't let the naming issue get in the way of good relations.
01:11外交部也将秉持开放态度,愿与爱沙尼亚,基于互惠合作的精神,
01:16务实讨论,加强双边关系与增进相互了解的具体做法.
01:20This all comes as Estonia's foreign minister is scheduled to visit China in November.
01:26China is welcoming the visit and says ties between the two countries have grown in recent years.
01:32And while Germany stepped in to help with Lithuania, it's not clear whether it'll have the stomach to do it again this time.
01:39Germany and China's foreign ministers recently held a phone call vowing to smooth over strained ties.
01:44During that exchange, China urged Germany to oppose what it called Taiwan independence.
01:50At the same time, China is exempting Germany from an export ban on certain chips, which are vital to Germany's auto industry.
01:58So with multiple EU countries looking to make nice with Beijing,
02:03the question is, will Taiwan's diplomatic goals in Europe need to take a back seat?
02:08Joseph Wu and Lesti Liao for Taiwan Plus.
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