British delegation to Taiwan calls for help in defence

A British parliamentary delegation to Taiwan has called for the UK government to give as much help as possible to Taiwan to defend itself against China.

The visit by the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group to Taiwan this week included a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen and discussions of British defence exports which supply Taiwan's submarine program.

On Wednesday, Bob Stewart, a Conservative MP and leader of the delegation, said that Taiwan was on the front line of democracy, and autocracy Stewart confirmed that the group discussed the UK supply of equipment to Taiwan's submarine program.

It came up in part, but the message we are taking back is that we should assist Taiwan in its defence as much as possible, he said.

After their meeting, Tsai thanked the UK for reaffirming the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, including at the G 7 and other multilateral meetings.

China's Communist Party government claims Taiwan as a province, which it intends to annex by force if necessary. The vast majority of the population of Taiwan oppose Chinese rule because of the democratically elected government.

In 2022, UK sales of defence related equipment for Taiwan's submarine program increased dramatically. In the first nine months of 2022, the British government granted 25 licences, totalling 167 m $206 m, to companies exporting submarine-related components and tech to Taiwan. The figure, which was reported earlier this month by Reuters, was more than the previous six years combined, and up from 3.3 m approved in 2008, the first year of such exports to Taiwan.

The report caused China's foreign ministry to accuse the UK of undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and committing a serious violation of the one-China principle. The one-China principle is a domestic Chinese edict that includes its claim over Taiwan. Other governments maintain their own one-China policies, which dictates the varying levels of recognition given to China's principle.

Western nations, mostly led by the US, have shown increasing support to Taiwan, even though they do not recognise it as a sovereign nation, instead of maintaining formal diplomatic ties with Beijing.

The relationship between the UK and China has deteriorated, as well as many western nations. In November, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used his first major foreign policy speech to signal the end of the golden era of relations between Britain and China. The UK and the US announced this month that the Aukus security agreement was aimed at countering China, and was formally announced by the UK and the US to help Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

Wen-ti Sung, a China and Taiwan expert at the Australian National University, said Aukus raised the stakes for the UK in the Indo-Pacific regional order.