Image taken from Jean-François Cesarini's Twitter

Paris, Aug. 4 (CNA) Jean-François Cesarini, a deputy of the French National Assembly and head of the French Senate's Taiwan Friendship Group, has written a song for Taiwan to express that Taiwan is a country with which France has shared universal human values, despite geographical and cultural distances.

Cesarini has presented the song titled "Taiwan" to Taiwan's Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) who headed a delegation of lawmakers to visit French National Assembly late last month, the first legislative speaker from Taiwan to do so.

Following the visit, Cesarini has praised Taiwan for its achievements in pursuit of democracy and human rights in posts on his Facebook page and Twitter account, which he said have generated interests among the French public in cross-Taiwan strait relations.

In general, ordinary French people do not really understand the tense cross-strait relations, but after Su's visit, they are getting to know about China's persistent suppression of Taiwan, Cesarini told CNA.

Aside from concerns over China ratcheting up pressure to isolate Taiwan in global arena, the rise in acquisition of French companies and land by Chinese enterprises was also painted in a suspicious light in France, Cesarini said.

Cesarini said that France needs not take sides between China and Taiwan but needs to cooperate with both. And France's economic exchanges with China should not impede France from exercising its liberty.

Likewise, despite the close economic and trade ties between Taiwan and China, Taiwan should be free from Chinese interference, he said.

In Taipei, Su said on Sunday that Taiwan was blessed to have a friend like Cesarini who is so thoughtful and values friendship with Taiwan so much.

(By Tzeng Yi-shiuan, Chen Chun-hua and Shih Hsiu-chuan)
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