Taiwan digital minister Audrey Tang to make rare visit to Britain this week
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Ms Audrey Tang will attend London Tech Week and is expected to visit government departments.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
TAIPEI – Taiwanese Digital Minister Audrey Tang will make a rare high-level ministerial trip to Britain this week, where she is expected to visit government departments and a company specialising in low-earth orbit satellites, her ministry said on Sunday.
Taipei views Britain as an important democratic partner despite the lack of formal ties, noting London’s concern over stepped-up Chinese military activities near the island, which Beijing views as its own territory, and its support for Taiwan’s participation in global bodies such as the World Health Organisation.
Ms Tang, one of Taiwan’s most high-profile ministers internationally due to her fluent English and extensive use of Twitter, will attend London Tech Week. She is expected to visit Britain’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Department for Business and Trade.
The two sides will “exchange views on issues related to digital governance and digital industry cooperation”, the ministry added.
Ms Tang will also visit OneWeb, which specialises in low-earth orbit satellites, and hopes to bolster Taiwan’s plans for communication resilience, the ministry said.
Taiwan’s government has been looking at plans to preserve communication
OneWeb is nearing completion of its Internet-from-space network.
Ms Tang hopes to use her British trip to deepen cooperation on government information security, investment and overall Taiwan-Britain relations, the ministry said.
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu is expected to go to Europe this week too, where he will attend a security forum in Prague in the Czech Republic.
The last Taiwanese minister known to have visited Britain was top trade negotiator John Deng, who went last June.
Last November, Britain’s then Minister of State for Trade Greg Hands came to Taiwan and met President Tsai Ing-wen. China denounced the trip,
Taiwan’s democratically elected government rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s own people can decide their future. REUTERS
