Taiwan Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim makes rare Italy visit for democracy conference
Taiwanese Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim is in Italy for a conference on democracy, in a rare visit to Europe by a senior official from the self-governed island. The presidential office said she has been invited to attend the Ventotene Conference for Freedom and Democracy on the Italian island of Ventotene. She is travelling with Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung, according to the same statement.
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The visit was kept secret until Hsiao arrived, with European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno saying the trip "was kept secret until her arrival to protect her participation" in the conference. The Taiwanese presidential office said further details would be provided after the delegation returns to Taiwan. The conference is scheduled to run from Thursday to Saturday this week, and other participants are expected to include Oleksandra Matviichuk, the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and president of Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties.
The trip is notable because Taiwan's foreign ministers occasionally travel to Europe and other regions that do not have formal ties with the island, but it is rare for a vice president to do so. That reflects the political sensitivity surrounding high-level Taiwanese travel abroad and the risk of backlash from Beijing against host countries. Italy, like most countries, does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory and which Taiwan rejects.
Picierno framed the visit as a defence of democratic debate, saying no one can decide who may be hosted on European soil or which voices must be hidden. She said intimidation should not determine participation in democratic discussion, and added that freedom of debate is not negotiable with autocracies. The setting of Ventotene also carries symbolic weight because the conference is explicitly focused on freedom and democracy.
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Hsiao's appearance in Europe follows other recent international engagements, including a speech last November at the annual summit of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China in the European Parliament in Brussels. That earlier appearance also underlined the limited but growing space Taiwan seeks in European political forums, even without formal diplomatic recognition. The current visit again places attention on how European institutions and governments manage contacts with Taiwanese officials while balancing relations with Beijing.
What remains unclear is the full programme for the delegation and what, if anything, will be disclosed after the return to Taiwan. The presidential office has said more information will follow once the trip is complete. For now, the main point is that a senior Taiwanese official is attending a European democracy forum in a visit that was deliberately concealed until arrival.
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