UK parliament calls Taiwan ‘independent country’ as Cleverly visits China
politico.eu
The British parliament has for the first time referred to Taiwan as an "independent country" in an official document, breaking a political taboo as Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visits China this week.
The new language, adopted in a report published Wednesday by the influential foreign affairs committee of the House of Commons, risks a stinging backlash from Beijing and comes as Cleverly becomes the first top British envoy to visit Beijing in five years amid a frosty relationship.
Beijing has long denied Taiwan's statehood, insisting the self-governing democratic island is part of its territory. Only 13 countries around the world recognize Taipei instead of Beijing diplomatically.
Good. Taiwan is a country. They have a military, they make their own laws, they have their own passports, and (unlike China) they elect their government leaders.
What?! China has election too. Not only that, the congress will elect the president on behalf of their citizen so their citizen don't need to waste their time going to election booth. Very convenient! Even the ballot only contains one candidate so there is no confusion when casting vote.
Yes but in USA we call it electoral college
That's hilarious, well done!
It's worth pointing out that James Cleverly is the most inappropriately named person ever.
I wouldn't put it past them to have just accidentally released that document without thinking about the consequences.
May have been accidental, but it's also possible that his department is trolling him, like the transport guys when they restricted travel from Spain to the UK just as soon as their boss, then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps arrived there on holiday.
He's also the MP for Braintree in Essex. He's the definitive disproof of the nominative determinism hypothesis if I've ever seen one!
Well, here's to hoping that they don't back pedal this statement immediately.
Bit of bing chilling normally sorts it out
Bing chilling meaning chilling while using Bing (aka watching porn)?
I was referring to John China
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They should because this needlessly upsets the status quo and puts Taiwan at risk because it forces China to escalate so they can continue to pretend to own Taiwan.
The British Parliament didn't do this because they care about Taiwan, they did it to score brownie points at home.
When Britain first, at Heaven's command