British MPs risk wrath of China with planned trip to Taiwan
The British parliament’s foreign affairs committee is expected to make a trip to Taiwan in February, risking the wrath of China amid heightened tensions with Beijing.
The trip, which follows in the path of similar political delegations last year from the US Congress, French, Czech and European parliaments, is likely to infuriate China, which has repeatedly warned the West to cut bilateral ties with Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory.
But the arrival of British MPs to the democratic island will signal its growing importance to the government’s post-Brexit Indo-Pacific “tilt” on foreign and security policy.
Britain, which recently signed the new “Aukus” pact with the US to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines, has increasingly shown willingness to challenge China over issues like Taiwan’s autonomy, and human rights in its former colony of Hong Kong.
Labour MP Chris Bryant, who sits on the foreign affairs committee, indicated Taiwan was a top priority when he revealed in a BBC Radio interview that a trip was in the works.
“I’m the only member of the foreign affairs committee in the country today because everyone is in Bosnia. We were in Ukraine last week, Bosnia this week and we’re going to Taiwan in two weeks’ time..,” he said.
Mr Bryant declined to reveal any further details, but the Telegraph has received independent confirmation of the committee's intentions, and understands the trip is expected to take place in late February.
Over the past year, the Chinese Communist Party, which has never ruled Taiwan, has stepped up its military harassment of the island of 23.5 million, flying hundreds of warplanes, including nuclear bombers, near its airspace.
The incursions by China’s air force were “not conducive to peace and stability in the region,” Boris Johnson, the prime minister, told parliament on Wednesday.
Jason Hsu, a former Taiwanese politician who testified to a foreign affairs select committee in November, said the upcoming visit would raise the importance of Taiwan’s “delicate position in the region” and “signal that Taiwan is not alone.”
He urged the UK to help defend Taiwan’s democracy and to step up mutually beneficial collaboration with Taipei on cyber security issues.
