Switzerland wary of China-Taiwan escalation

Archive photo showing a Chinese tank rolling during military exercises in Eastern Siberia, Russia, on September 13, 2018. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Swiss representatives to the United Nations take the possibility of an attack by China against Taiwan seriously. The scenario hangs like a sword of Damocles over the Security Council, which Switzerland joins in 2023.

“The consequences would be economic shocks that  would go far beyond what we are currently experiencing with the war in Ukraine,” says Swiss ambassador Thomas Gürber in an interview with the German-language newspapers of the Tamedia press group. 

The Swiss diplomat is deputy secretary of state at the foreign ministry and heads its UN division.

The Taiwan disputeExternal link has simmered since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, when the defeated nationalists fled to the island. Beijing has long insisted on its goal of reunification. Some analysts fear that China, emboldened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, could pursue a military solution to the island in the near future.

Worldwide, fewer than two dozen nations recognise Taiwan as a state and maintain diplomatic relations. Many more, including Switzerland,  use unofficial channels of communication.  But Switzerland’s unwillingness to recognise Taiwan as a state does not mean that there are no obligations under international law, Gürber noted.

Existing obligations

“Such obligations also exist when it comes to autonomous territorial communities,” the diplomat said.

Bern will decide on possible sanctions through a weighing of interests, he added. In case of escalation, it will assess whether international law has been violated. “UN sanctions would, as always, be taken up by Switzerland,” he said.

Switzerland takes up its non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the first time in its history on January 1, 2023. During its two-year term, the country will preside over the UN’s most important body next May and again in October 2024.

During this period, Gürber will clarify the Swiss position on certain issues in Bern. The team around Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl in New York will have to “implement the instructions at the negotiating table,” he said.