Threatening acts by Beijing are “not the conduct of a responsible international actor,” British Minister of State for the Indo-Pacific Anne-Marie Trevelyan said yesterday in a display of support for Taiwan.
She made the comment after lawmaker Stewart McDonald during a debate in the House of Commons in London asked the British government to explain its support of the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, despite China’s “expansionist behavior.”
Trevelyan said the UK’s long-standing position is for the peaceful settlement of the Taiwan issue “by the people on both sides of the Strait without the threat or use of force or coercion.”
Photo: AFP
The UK and the world have a “clear interest” in ensuring the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific as a whole, as a conflict would have a tragic human and economic cost for the world, she said.
The UK is committed to working with its international partners to “underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait” in light of China’s assertive actions, including military flights that have escalated tensions, she said.
The UK supports Taiwan’s inclusion in the international community, which is in the global public interest, and Taiwanese can make valuable contributions on issues of global concern, she added.
“The UK has an important role to play in supporting continued peace and stability in the Strait, and we can only benefit from that continued engagement with Taiwan as a thriving democracy and an important economic partner,” Trevelyan said.
McDonald said that he believes the British government’s attitude to Taiwan is positive, but he hopes London would go further than its current stance.
Limits on exchanges of senior officials between Taiwan and the UK should be reduced, and London’s de facto embassy to Taiwan should be given an appropriate legal status if bilateral cooperation in trade and other fields is to be improved, he said.
Taiwan’s experience in dealing with disinformation offers valuable lessons for the UK, McDonald added.
In response to a request for comment, Alicia Kearns, chair of the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said that the committee emphasized the importance of continued cooperation with Taiwan in a report to parliament.
The British government should have the courage to make clear that London has taken note of Beijing’s “one China” principle, but does not acknowledge it, Kearns said.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS