Taiwan’s former president Tsai Ing-wen had been due to visit the UK between 16 and 18 October before the Foreign Office intervened, the Guardian can disclose. Tsai was scheduled to visit London for two days as part of her first international tour since leaving office and was in discussions about addressing the UK parliament, according to a leaked letter. But the trip, which had been due to coincide with David Lammy’s visit to China, was pulled and Tsai was hosted by the French parliament on those dates instead. The leaked letter, sent to the Commons and Lords speakers in August, said Tsai “will visit London between 16th and 18th October” and that the UK Taiwanese office wanted to explore the possibility of her being hosted by parliament. The letter said Tsai would “greatly value” an invitation to address parliamentarians and attend a reception in the Commons speaker’s house. It said: “A significant number of MPs and peers would wish to hear her views on the years ahead in Taiwan.” A source involved in the discussions said the trip was pulled after the Foreign Office indicated to Taiwanese officials that it was not a good time for it. The source told the Guardian last month: “We got a note from the FCDO via the Taiwanese representative to the UK. It said: ‘Please can you defer this for a while because the foreign secretary is about to make a ‘goodwill visit’ to China and this would absolutely put the kibosh on it.’” This message will not have been have relayed by ministers because the UK does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Taiwan’s representative in London can only meet civil servants. An FCDO spokesperson said: “We do not recognise this characterisation of events. Parliamentarians are independent of government and are free to invite whoever they wish.” When asked about the postponed visit by the Guardian at an event in parliament last week, the director of Taiwan’s political division in London said he was not authorised to discuss it. Tsai’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
China often does not differentiate between government and parliamentary meetings. Beijing has reacted angrily to Tsai’s meetings with political figures in Brussels, Paris and Prague. The French parliamentarians who hosted Tsai said China had tried to dissuade them from doing so. China’s foreign ministry described Tsai as a “Taiwan independence” figure last month and warned European countries that assisting her could “harm bilateral relations with China”. China views Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually come under Beijing’s control, and there are fears it will eventually try to annex the island by force. Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the People’s Republic of China, sees itself as distinct and has its own constitution and democratically elected leaders. The Taiwanese population has grown increasingly opposed to China’s claims of sovereignty over it. The prospect of Tsai visiting the UK parliament next spring has been floated but the government will want this not to clash with Rachel Reeves’ planned visit to China early next year. Meanwhile, ministers are grappling with a controversial application to build a huge new Chinese embassy near Tower Bridge in east London, which has become a top issue in bilateral relations between London and Beijing. After it was rejected by Tower Hamlets council in 2022 following local opposition, the planning application was resubmitted this summer and has been called in by central government. In a letter published on the council’s website this weekend, Jon Savell, a deputy assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan police, raised concerns about the proposal and warned it would have a “significant” impact on local policing and resource in the area. The Guardian reported last month that China has refused to allow the UK to rebuild its embassy in Beijing while the status of its own embassy proposal in London is pending. Keir Starmer raised the issue with Xi Jinping in the first bilateral meeting between a UK prime minister and the Chinese president in more than six years. “You raised the Chinese embassy building in London when we spoke on the telephone and we have since taken action by calling in that application. Now we have to follow the legal process and timeline,” Starmer told Xi in recorded remarks on the margins of the G20 summit in Brazil.