Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Taipei yesterday , marking his first visit to Taiwan, to attend the Ketagalan Forum on Indo-Pacific security issues and would meet with president Lai Ching-te(賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen(蔡英文) and senior security officials, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MOFA).
The annual forum, hosted by MOFA and the Prospect Foundation, is set to open today. Johnson is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech as a special guest, alongside former Canadian Defense Minister Jason Kenney.
Johnson’s visit to Taipei is a part of his broader trip to Asia that also includes a stop in China.
Photo courtesy of MOFA
During his term as Prime Minister (2019-2022), Johnson promoted stronger U.K.-China trade ties, pushing to revive the U.K.-China Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) and Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO). Both initiatives stalled due to Beijing’s crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong.
Johnson’s family has deep-rooted political and business ties with China. Notably, during his time as Foreign Secretary in 2018, China purchased land near London’s financial district for a proposed new embassy -- a project now under review by the British government due to national security concerns.
As prime minister, Johnson’s administration introduced the 2021 Integrated Review, which outlined a strategic “tilt” toward the Indo-Pacific. The 2023 update explicitly mentioned Taiwan for the first time and reaffirmed the region as a long-term U.K. foreign policy priority.
In 2021, under Johnson’s leadership, the U.K. deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to the Indo-Pacific, including a warship that sailed through the Taiwan Strait.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS