Press Release
Legislative Yuan
February 17, 2022
The Legislative Yuan welcomes and thanks the UK House of Commons for the passing of a motion in support of Taiwan following a debate on “UK-Taiwan friendship and cooperation”.
The motion, which was debated in the House of Commons on the afternoon of Thursday, February 10, was passed with unanimous approval. The Legislative Yuan welcomes and appreciates the passing of the motion, while “noting the importance of UK-Taiwan relations and requesting that the British government continues in its efforts to strengthen UK-Taiwan trade relations and deepen security cooperation, as well as supporting Taiwan to be recognized by the international community.”
The proposal was cosponsored by Alicia Kearns, cochair of the China Research Group, and Bob Stewart, cochair of the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), with the participation of 18 members from the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the Scottish National Party. They affirmed Taiwan’s achievements in democracy, freedom, and human rights, as well as calling on the British government to support Taiwan’s security, strengthen high-level bilateral visits, actively support Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, and strengthen Taiwan-UK cooperation in various fields, such as economic development and trade, science and technology, and education, thereby fully demonstrating the support of British political parties for enhanced Taiwan-UK relations.
Promoting parliamentary diplomacy is one of the Legislative Yuan’s key tasks. In addition to numerous visits to Taiwan made by delegations of British MPs, Baroness D’Souza, Speaker of the House of Lords, also led a delegation to Taiwan in 2014, becoming the first Speaker of the House of Lords to visit Taiwan. Former President of the Legislative Yuan Su Jia-chyuan led a delegation to the United Kingdom in 2018 to meet with the Speaker of the House of Lords and other important members of the British Parliament. Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle also delivered a congratulatory speech at the Open Parliament Forum 2021 hosted by the Legislative Yuan in December 2021. All these examples attest to the close ties between Taiwan and the United Kingdom.
Both Taiwan and the UK are liberal democracies—while democracy is the politics of public opinion. As the core force in the promotion of democracy, the Legislative Yuan will continue to foster exchanges with the British Parliament and to welcome official parliamentary delegations from the UK to Taiwan, so as to jointly uphold the resilience of democracy and defend the shared values of freedom and democracy.