Amid Nancy Pelosi trip, Chinese ambassador warns UK lawmakers against Taiwan visit
- Envoy Zheng Zeguang says such a move would lead to ‘severe consequences’ in relations between China and Britain
- His comments follow a UK media report that the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee is planning a visit to Taiwan later this year
China’s UK ambassador Zheng Zeguang vowed “severe consequences” if British lawmakers visit Taiwan, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Visits would interfere in China’s internal affairs and would lead to severe consequences in China-UK relations, Zheng said at a news conference in London, the report said.
“We call on the UK side to abide by the Sino-UK joint communique and not to underestimate the extreme sensitivity of the Taiwan issue, and not to follow the US’s footsteps,” The Guardian quoted Zheng as saying.
Zheng’s comments came after The Guardian reported on Monday that Britain’s House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee is planning a visit to Taiwan probably in November or early December this year.
Taiwan faces mounting pressure from China, which considers the democratically governed island its own territory.
Separately, tensions have escalated in the Taiwan Strait after the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in the Chinese-claimed self-ruled island late on Tuesday, a move that China condemned as a threat to peace and stability.