At 3 p.m. on September 18, Legislative Yuan President Daniel K.Y. Han (韓國瑜), accompanied by KMT Legislator Dr. Yang Chiung-Ying, DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-Ying, and TPP Legislator Dr. Chiu Hui-Ju, received a seven-member delegation from the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) led by MP Sarah Champion, the group’s co-chair.
President Han first extended a warm welcome to the guests and expressed particular gratitude to APPG Co-Chair Champion and other British parliamentarians supportive of Taiwan for their warm hospitality during his visit to the UK in May 2026, when he led a cross-party delegation of Legislative Yuan members. He also praised the magnificent architecture of the Palace of Westminster, home to the UK Parliament, which had left a deep impression on him. This prompted him to mention the proposed relocation of the Legislative Yuan, a topic that has long been the subject of lively discussion. President Han also explained to the guests that, unlike the UK Parliament, the Legislative Yuan is a unicameral legislature with 113 members representing the will of the people. He said that he had specifically invited the legislators from different political parties who had accompanied him on the May visit to the UK to attend the meeting as a gesture of welcome and appreciation for the visiting delegation.
President Han noted that the UK Parliament is hailed as the “mother of parliaments.” Citing Magna Carta of 1215 and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 as milestones in Britain’s constitutional history, he said that the development of the British Parliament had significantly influenced the development of modern parliaments around the world. On recent developments in bilateral trade, President Han noted that Taiwan’s exports to the UK exceeded US$6.3 billion in 2025, while imports from the UK exceeded US$2.2 billion, making the UK Taiwan’s fourth largest trading partner in Europe. The UK is also Taiwan’s second largest investment destination in Europe, he said, with a total of 260 Taiwanese businesses having invested or established a presence there. He expressed hope that frequent exchanges between legislators from Taiwan and the UK would further deepen bilateral economic and trade cooperation.
In closing, President Han once again expressed his sincere gratitude to Co-Chair Champion for her longstanding advocacy for Taiwan in international forums and expressed hope that the delegation’s visit would further strengthen cooperation between Taiwan and the UK across various fields.
In her remarks, Co-Chair Champion said that most of the British parliamentarians in her cross-party delegation were visiting Taiwan for the first time. She noted that they were keenly interested in developments in Taiwan’s democracy and that, although many people held the UK’s democratic development in high regard, they often overlooked democracy’s fragility and value. Concerned about the gradual decline of democracy worldwide in recent years, she said that she hoped to demonstrate her support for democracy through the visit to Taiwan.
Co-Chair Champion said that during the visit, she had observed Taiwan’s vibrant society, friendly people, advanced healthcare and public health systems, and thriving industry and commerce. She also noted Taiwan’s well-developed technologies for mitigating foreign information interference. She expressed hope that the visit would provide an opportunity to learn from Taiwan’s experience and foster further cooperation between Taiwan and the UK across various fields.
Legislator Yang first thanked Co-Chair Champion for the warm hospitality she had extended during the visit to the UK in May that year, as well as for her continued support for Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA) and other initiatives supporting Taiwan. She pointed out that Taiwan currently faces the challenges of an aging society. Given her academic background in healthcare industry management, she has long focused on issues related to long-term care. She expressed hope that artificial intelligence (AI) could be integrated into long-term care in the future to address shortages of care workers.
In her remarks, Legislator Chiu also addressed healthcare for older people. She said that her constituency was in a rural area where technology was already being used to enable residents to receive medical consultations remotely, reducing travel time and improving the efficiency of healthcare delivery. She expressed hope that drones could be used to deliver medical supplies in the future and that Taiwan and the UK could expand cooperation and exchanges in this area.
In her remarks, Legislator Chiu expressed that she had been deeply touched by the warm hospitality of British parliamentarians during the visit to the UK. Drawing on her nursing background, she praised Taiwan’s healthcare system and National Health Insurance (NHI) program as among the best in the world, while also highlighting the workplace challenges nurses in Taiwan face. She expressed hope that Taiwan could exchange views with the UK on improving nurses’ working conditions.
Subsequently, both sides held extensive discussions on medical technology, renewable energy, higher education in Taiwan and the UK, AI applications in medical records, care for people with visual impairments, and local culinary specialties. The meeting lasted approximately an hour in a cordial and friendly atmosphere, concluding successfully with an exchange of commemorative gifts. (2026/09/18)
