The UK Foreign Office (FCDO) asked for a visit by the former Taiwanese president to be postponed so as not to anger China ahead of a trip by David Lammy, the Guardian has learned.
Lammy is due to travel to China next week for high-level meetings in his first trip to the country as foreign secretary.
The British-Taiwanese all-party parliamentary group (APPG) had been in talks to host Tsai Ing-wen, the former president of Taiwan, in parliament this month. But the plans for a visit were postponed after the Foreign Office indicated it could scupper Lammy’s imminent trip to China, three sources told the Guardian
Mustn’t make our communist overlords angry 🤢🤮
Government needs to grow a spine.
I mean as long as they still do it, its useful to have a dialogue with China and this may have had the effect of cancelling it.
I think we have to walk a line here, if we aren’t planning to send the Royal Navy to fight and die for Taiwan, where we don’t antagonise the sitution, while not normalising Chinas more broad claims.
It’s called “diplomacy”. The object of the exercise is to manage international relations in a way that gives the UK the best outcomes. Every country does it. The UK wouldn’t benefit from needlessly pissing off a country that has the second-biggest economy in the world – particularly when it only involves a diary change to avoid doing so.
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The UK Foreign Office (FCDO) asked for a visit by the former Taiwanese president to be postponed so as not to anger China ahead of a trip by David Lammy, the Guardian has learned.
Lammy is due to travel to China next week for high-level meetings in his first trip to the country as foreign secretary.
The British-Taiwanese all-party parliamentary group (APPG) had been in talks to host Tsai Ing-wen, the former president of Taiwan, in parliament this month. But the plans for a visit were postponed after the Foreign Office indicated it could scupper Lammy’s imminent trip to China, three sources told the Guardian
Mustn’t make our communist overlords angry 🤢🤮
Government needs to grow a spine.
I mean as long as they still do it, its useful to have a dialogue with China and this may have had the effect of cancelling it.
I think we have to walk a line here, if we aren’t planning to send the Royal Navy to fight and die for Taiwan, where we don’t antagonise the sitution, while not normalising Chinas more broad claims.
It’s called “diplomacy”. The object of the exercise is to manage international relations in a way that gives the UK the best outcomes. Every country does it. The UK wouldn’t benefit from needlessly pissing off a country that has the second-biggest economy in the world – particularly when it only involves a diary change to avoid doing so.