British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy yesterday called for a resumption of dialogue between London and Beijing, urging the two sides to engage in “more diplomacy” as he concluded a rare diplomatic visit to China, in which he said he brought up concerns about Taiwan.
The countries are seeking to reset ties frayed in the past few years by Beijing’s security crackdown in Hong Kong and human rights concerns including in its troubled Xinjiang region.
The new Labour administration in London is under pressure to raise human rights abuses with China, but also maintain ties with a major trading partner.
Photo: AFP
The Guardian last week reported that the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office had asked that a visit by former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) be “deferred” to avoid angering China ahead of Lammy’s trip.
Lammy on Friday met with Chinese officials including Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) in Beijing, before yesterday traveling to Shanghai.
“UK policy in the past under the last government was not consistent and what I’m hearing is that we need consistency in our approach,” he told reporters yesterday.
Lammy said that during his Friday talks with Wang he was “able to have dialogue with the Chinese on areas where we disagree.”
He said he discussed “Hong Kong, areas like Taiwan, areas like human rights in Xinjiang. We were able to have those conversations and raise difficult, challenging issues.”
He added that the UK’s position on Taiwan has not changed under the Labour administration and expressed concern over “some of the tensions that we see in the Taiwan Strait, because that is not in the interests of the global community.”
Sebastien Lai (黎崇恩), the son of jailed Hong Kong democracy activist, media tycoon and British citizen Jimmy Lai (黎智英), told Sky News he hoped Lammy had made it clear that “it is impossible to normalize the relationship if they still have a British national that’s imprisoned for standing up for freedoms that underpin our democracy.”
Jimmy Lai was arrested in 2020 for fraud and involvement in protests and, following delays, is facing trial for sedition and collusion with foreign forces.
“Let’s be clear, there are values, areas where the UK Government and our cultural approach will be different to China’s and there are important areas of national security where we will always put the UK’s national interests first,” Lammy said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail