Taiwan has been losing diplomatic allies for decades as countries are lured by China’s newfound riches and prestige. At present, only 22 countries have full diplomatic ties with Taiwan. This seemingly random collection of countries includes The Holy See, as well as Tuvalu, Panama, Paraguay, and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines; generally small, impoverished countries with minimal influence in shaping global affairs. Beijing’s unmovable position on the “one China” principle makes it impossible for countries to formally recognize Taiwan as an independent country. Instead, most countries use intermediary bodies under the euphemistic title of “trade office” or “cultural office” to put some kind of representative body in Taipei, eager not to offend Beijing.
The U.K. is no exception in sticking firmly to “one China.” Unable to open an embassy in the Taiwanese capital, it established the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei in 1993, which in May 2005 changed its name to the British Office Taipei. While the U.K. and Taiwan share mutually beneficial bilateral ties (one example is the U.K. granting Taiwanese citizens favorable visa treatment), London’s cozy relationship with China makes it almost impossible to envisage the U.K. formally recognizing Taiwan as an independent sovereign state.
However, a petition submitted to the British Parliament a few days after Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) decisive electoral victory on Jan. 16 calling for Taiwan to be recognized as a country has already garnered more than 20,000 signatures online, bringing Taiwan’s political situation to the frontbenches of one of the world’s oldest and most established democracies.
Started on Jan. 18, the petition was first submitted to the U.K.’s Parliamentary Petitions web page by a British citizen named Lee Chapman. In the petition, Lee calls on the British Government to recognize Taiwan as a country, making the point that Taiwan already has a diplomatic presence in both Edinburgh and London. He further notes that the fact the U.K. Government doesn’t recognise the Republic of China (ROC), and that all diplomatic relations take place only on an unofficial basis, is “ridiculous, and must change.”
Chapman is not alone in believing this; at the time of writing, 20,816 signatures had been collected, meaning that under the conditions of the U.K.’s petition system, the Government is required to issue a response. Furthermore, the petition has piqued the interest of Taiwanese back home, as well as among Taiwanese communities around the world, most notably in the U.S. where a similar petition has surfaced in recent weeks.
Since the E-Petition platform was launched in Britain in 2011, 106 petitions have passed the 10,000-signature mark required to draw an official response from the government. Issues petitioned have ranged from halting airstrikes in Syria to defending Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) from crippling budget cuts. If a petition passes the 100,000-signatures mark, the issue will be considered for debate by Members of Parliament in the Houses of Parliament, the U.K.’s legislative house. One such example is a recent petition calling for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to be banned from the U.K., which gathered more than 570,000 signatures. The number of signatures far exceeded the 100,000 needed, prompting MPs to hold a hearing in parliament on the issue. While the fate of a tiny island nation 6,000 miles away is far from the conscience of the average British citizen, it should be noted that the Taiwan petition is currently the only foreign policy-based petition not concerning the Middle East to pass 10,000 signatures.
With Taiwanese media outlets once more concentrating on the face of the story rather than the substance behind it, some Taiwanese netizens have assumed that the petition is spearheaded by MPs and will result in the British government holding a national referendum on the issue of Taiwanese independence. Of course, such a prospect is beyond conceivable, especially in light of how relations between London and Beijing have strengthened in the past few years. On a five-day tour of China last September, British Chancellor George Osborne pledged that the U.K. would become China’s best partner in the West, vowing to “make sure that the British-China relationship is second-to-none.” Osborne’s enthusiasm was reciprocated by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the U.K. barely a month later. A dinner reception with the Queen was held, and London’s main streets were awash with party-slogan banners. Britain had made a “visionary” choice to become China’s best friend, Xi told reporters on the eve of his departure.
The U.K.’s relationship with Taiwan, while remaining unofficial, has continued to thrive alongside London and Beijing’s burgeoning relationship. Taiwanese are eligible for working holiday visas in the country, and can now apply to receive fast-track entry privileges at a number of U.K. airports. Britain also remains an attractive market for Taiwanese university students choosing to study abroad, with almost 30% of those going overseas selecting the U.K. as their destination of study.
While a radical change in direction of official government policy toward Taiwan is unlikely, such a petition nevertheless helps Taiwan in a number of ways. For instance, it raises awareness of Taiwan’s unique political situation among policymakers and MPs, as well as the general public. Furthermore, it forces the U.K., a UN Security Council member, and a country of significant global importance, to officially and publically recognize Taiwan’s democratic achievements, even if it still complies with Beijing’s stance on “one China.”
Even if the U.K. government’s response, when it is finally issued, only dishes out the standard, repetitive, “one China” rhetoric so often used in official engagements with the Chinese, the petition has already served a purpose in helping showcase Taiwan as a peaceful, democratic nation worthy of consideration. Such attention should not be underestimated in its significance, especially to a country striving so hard to rightfully gain recognition in the global political arena.
“…one of the world’s oldest and most established democracies.”
Rookie error: Britain is (or at least was) a constitutional monarchy, not a “democracy”. Much as the U.S. is (or was) a constitutional republic rather than a “democracy”. However, given the steady erosion of Parliamentary sovereignty both by the appropriation of crown powers by the executive and the various impositions of the European Union, it is unclear what exactly the British political system today actually is. Which means… that the freedom and independence of Taiwan is not a significant electoral issue in Britain. Nor is it likely to become so given that British political elites do not appear to value the freedom and independence of even Britain itself.
Still, if the petition annoys the right people, then I’ll have a pint or two on Lee Chapman’s behalf.
How is that a ‘rookie error’? The last time I checked, the UK was indeed a constitutional monarchy as you pointed out, but it was also a democracy. The two are not mutually exclusive of each other.
By widely accepted definition the UK is a democracy. I am not sure on what grounds this can be denied.
I suppose so, but that’s not the point. The point is how can Britain be expected to care about Taiwanese freedom and independence when it doesn’t even care about its own?
The petition is little more than virtue signalling.
To take it at face value is ridiculous; it is in effect asking a government (Britain) whose own constitution is said to be “unwritten” though it is arguably laid out across several different historical documents, whose Parliamentary sovereignty and national independence is compromised by membership of the European Union, and whose constitutional safeguards (due process in the courts, trial by jury, the political independence of the Crown Prosecution Service etc) have been poisoned by legislation of successive governments (particularly Blair’s)… to actually help another country whose diplomatic status is a mess, whose written constitution cannot be properly reformed for fear of Chinese aggression, and whose constitutional safeguards are little more than a questionable commitment to the absurd UN convention on human rights.
But it’s a good idea because “democracy” or something.
This shallow, sanctimonious mythologizing of “democracy” is a serious problem which is not being taken seriously. There are at least two aspects to this “sacred democracy” problem. First, it clouds the issue which concerns the proper function of government; is it to safeguard the individual rights of the population and maintain some semblance of freedom, justice and order, or is it merely to pump out good numbers for GDP, CO2 etc and provide rule consistent with “the desires of the public” (i.e. instant mob-rule)? That clouding of the issue will serve as propaganda to protect the new government elect from criticism, in ways which the previous government could only have dreamed of. Second, it diverts attention away from the importance of constitutional forms and the limitations they set on the scope and exercise of political power.
“What Can the UK Petition System Do For Taiwan?”
Short answer: nothing.
Longer answer: The wording of the petition reflects popular confusion over what Taiwan is and what the difference between a state, a nation and a country is. Do they want the UK to recognise the ROC or Taiwan? Until that is sorted out in the minds of the petitioners, they are not going to get far. Taiwan’s predicament is the result of the actions of the Chiang Kai-shek clique in response to its expulsion from the UN in 1971. The ROC had the option of staying on in the General Assembly after the PRC’s accession to the Security Council, but CKS sulked and threw his toys out of the pram, declaiming “gentlemen do not sit down with thieves.” Despite crafty attempts at re-branding, no subsequent ROC administration has ever dropped the name and sovereign claim of the Republic of China. How, then, in the absence of a UDI by Taipei under the name of the RoT can the UK – or any other serious player – be expected to formally acknowledge that it is an independent sovereign state? This is also what the PRC keeps pointing out and it cannot be gainsaid, no matter what your normative claims over what may or may not be a more or less legitimate regime type.
“Do they want the UK to recognise the ROC or Taiwan? Until that is sorted out in the minds of the petitioners, they are not going to get far.”
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that they did get this sorted out. What then? Well the subject of the petition can be discussed in Parliament. It might not be. But let’s say that it does get Parliamentary time. What then? The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will ignore it, because (a) there is too much at stake relative to Britain’s mediocre status and capabilities, and (b) because the British government won’t even support Britain’s independence and national sovereignty by leaving the European Union. We simply aren’t a serious world power anymore, haven’t been for a long time and have no chance of becoming so once again anytime soon.