TAIPEI, Oct 7 (Reuters): The trips by four French senators and former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott come after four straight days, beginning last Friday, of massed Chinese air force incursions into Taiwan's air defence zone, moves met with concern by Washington and its allies.

Alain Richard discussed the "essential contribution of Taiwan in the important field of human progress".

In March, the Chinese embassy in Paris warned against lawmakers meeting Taiwanese officials, prompting a rebuff from the French foreign ministry, which said French senators are free to meet whomever they wish when they travel.

Sounds simple - pity a few more politicians didn't have the moral courage to do it. But it's a good sign.

I don't know about Joe - the ambiguity stuff - we're past that now surely. Why is it so hard to speak simple truths? Taiwan is a country.

Good on Reuters for reporting it. Meanwhile back in the most locked-down freedom restricted country on earth their ex-PM's trip to world's biggest hotspot did not even make the public-funded ABC news website. Nothing. To this day they have still not done a single story of the possibility Covid was a lab-leak. More important was this story: Wagga Wagga records first Covid case in a year and the usual vax-hesitant vilifying.