UK lawmakers refer to Taiwan as ‘an independent country’ in panel report

Foreign Affairs Committee also takes aim at ‘muddled’ China strategy and calls for more assertive stand

Paper was released the same day British foreign secretary was in Beijing meeting senior Chinese officials

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The report urges the British foreign secretary and prime minister to expand cooperation with Taiwan. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 5:34pm, 30 Aug 2023

A powerful panel of British lawmakers has described Taiwan as “an independent country” that “possesses all the qualifications for statehood”, in a move that is sure to draw the ire of Beijing.

The parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee made the reference in a report on the Indo-Pacific released on Wednesday, as Britain’s foreign secretary was meeting top-level Chinese officials in Beijing for the first time in five years.

“Taiwan is already an independent country, under the name Republic of China (ROC). Taiwan, including a permanent population, a defined territory, government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states – it is only lacking greater international recognition,” read the report, steered by the committee’s chair Alicia Kearns.

Alicia Kearns, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Photo: Reuters

The report encouraged a more assertive British policy towards China, describing the “activities of the Chinese Communist Party as a threat to the UK and its interests”.

It accused the government of operating a “muddled” China strategy, exemplified by the “half-hearted sanctions announced in March 2021” over Xinjiang, when “nobody of real seniority was held accountable”, in reference to British sanctions on mid-ranking Chinese officials in the western region in which they are accused of human rights violations.

Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province to be taken back by force if necessary. Most governments, including the US and the UK, do not see Taiwan as an independent state but many are opposed to change of status quo by force.

The potentially embarrassing paper urged Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to release an unclassified version of their China strategy and to expand cooperation with Taiwan.

“While it is understandable that the government does not publish a complete policy towards the PRC because awareness by the CCP of some of its military or trade competitor strategies would undermine the effectiveness of the strategy, the failure to outline clear foreign policy, let alone a cross-government stance towards China, makes it difficult for that strategy to be complied with by both state and non-state actors, including civil servants, academics and businesses,” the report read.