Analysis: UK-Taiwan Cooperation Expands Despite Chinese Pressure

TaiwanPlus News

Plans for a massive new Chinese embassy in London are drawing protests and raising security concerns, as UK officials face wider pressure from Beijing. In an interview with TaiwanPlus, Taiwan Representative to the United Kingdom Vincent Yao says UK-Taiwan relations are “steadily growing,” pointing to several agreements and recent high-profile bilateral visits. Yao also rejects China’s claims over Taiwan and says Beijing misinterprets UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, and that the office is closely watching the developments on China's new "mega embassy."

Transcript

00:00Let's start with the big picture. How would you describe the current state of UK-Taiwan relations

00:04at this moment? I think in a nutshell, we can say it is steadily growing and we have signed

00:14three pillar arrangements under enhanced trade partnership. We have signed an MOU on the skill

00:21training and talent training and we also have a pretty significant high profile visit such as a

00:32former president Tsai Ing-wen's visit in London and certainly we have a ministerial level visit

00:40from the British government to Taiwan as well. So actually we achieved a lot this year.

00:46A few months ago, China's ambassador to the UK published a controversial op-ed in a major

00:51newspaper. He stated that Taiwan is a Chinese territory and in strong language told the UK

00:56it must work with Beijing to quote restore the post-war order. Your office issued a rebuttal

01:03immediately. What was the core message you wanted the British public to take away from that rebuttal?

01:08My message was clear. Taiwan is not part of China and China has been trying to misinterpret

01:17the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2750A. As a matter of fact, that resolution

01:26did not touch upon Taiwan. It did not certainly, you know, give People's Republic of China any rise to

01:35represent the people of Taiwan in the United Nations and in any affiliate organization of the United Nations.

01:43So the message was very clear. So after that op-ed and your rebuttal was published,

01:49what kind of response did you get from the UK government? They actually have never responded

01:54to the public about China's narrative. But I can tell you that in private, the response was that they

02:03know clearly about the history and the background of all these historic documents.

02:12Now, there's another major flashpoint right now in the UK, and that's China's plan to build the

02:17so-called mega embassy near the Tower of London. There are a lot of local concerns about security.

02:23From your vantage point, what are the wider implications if that project is built as planned?

02:28We have been watching very closely the development of these all these events, including the mega

02:35embassy. We also have noticed that there are many, many Hong Kongers and even the British people are

02:45joining the demonstration to protest the potential establishment of this mega embassy.

02:53Now critics of the embassy have cited the potential for Chinese surveillance or espionage in and around

02:59the site. Have you or your staff encountered any direct issues with that kind of thing in London?

03:04I think for my office, per se, we just moved to a new office and we have gone through all the

03:13process to strengthen the security. We make sure that we use non-made in China surveillance equipments.

03:23We screen and vet the entire building to make sure that we don't have any bugs or some devices implanted by

03:34our enemy. For our nationals in the UK, certainly we are also very concerned about the so-called

03:44transnational repression that China is now talking about.

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