MADRID, 2 (EUROPA PRESS) Alicia Kearns, who heads the British delegation that is visiting Taiwan, has assured this Friday that the territory “is not alone” and that it has the right, “like any other democracy”, to commit itself to the dialogue.
After a meeting with the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing Wen, in the midst of an increase in tension with China, Kearns highlighted that Taiwan has gone from being a “rookie” in terms of democracy to becoming “one of the strongest democracies in the world”. .
Thus, in what is the first visit by the members of the British parliamentary commission to the island since 2006, he has warned that the world “is moving more and more towards authoritarianism”, so it is important that “democracies commit themselves with dialogue at the parliamentary level”.
“We enjoy results on a more global level and we recognize and value the values ??of our allies in the Indo-Pacific,” Kearns said during his meeting with Tsai, whom he has asked to work together, according to information from the newspaper ‘United Daily News’.
In this sense, he stressed that Taiwan “has friends” and “is not alone”, while recalling that the role of the United Kingdom is to “support Taiwan to avoid conflicts”, a clear reference to a possible Chinese military intervention in the zone.
Tsai, for her part, has welcomed the visit, which comes almost four months after the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, came to the island on a visit that raised blisters. “Democratic countries must remain united even in the face of the expansion of authoritarianism,” she asserted at a press conference.
The Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom has been quick to condemn the visit of the British delegation, which it has described as a “flagrant violation of the ‘one China’ principle”.
In a statement, a spokesman for the diplomatic legation has insisted on China’s “firm position” and has indicated that the decision to go to Taiwan constitutes “serious interference in the internal affairs of the country and sends the wrong message to the separatist forces. who seek independence from Taiwan”.
“Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory and the Taiwanese issue is purely an internal issue. The ‘one China’ principle is an internationally recognized norm (…) and is also the political basis for the establishment and development of the diplomatic relations between China and the United Kingdom,” he stressed.
For this reason, he said, the Chinese government “asks the United Kingdom to maintain its commitment and stop any action that violates this principle.” “Decisions by the UK that undermine China’s interests will carry consequences,” she warned.
