26 October 2025 , 17:44
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Britain must support China’s ownership of Taiwan or risk a breach in diplomatic relations, China’s ambassador to the UK has suggested.
Writing in The Telegraph, Zheng Zeguang said that the “key to ensuring the sound and steady development of UK-China relations” lay in the British government accepting “Taiwan has never been a country” and that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to… China”.
The intervention comes at a time of heightened tension with Beijing over the Chinese spy case and calls to cancel the construction of a super embassy in London amid fears it could be used to tap into sensitive data cables.
In the article, Mr. Zheng writes that Britain made an “unequivocal commitment” to defend China’s ownership of Taiwan when diplomatic relations were established with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1972.
“This history must not be forgotten,” he said.
The UK government’s position has long been to acknowledge China’s claim on Taiwan without endorsing it – a policy known as “strategic ambiguity”.
The Chinese ambassador quoted from the 1972 joint communique citing that deliberately vague position, but interprets Britain’s “acknowledgement” as an acceptance of China’s claims on Taiwan, a common elision from Beijing’s diplomats.
Mr. Zheng referred to two sections from the communique in which Britain “acknowledges the position of the Chinese government that Taiwan is a province” of the PRC and “recognises” the Chinese Communist Party as the “sole legal government in China”.
He wrote: “It was only after the UK made this unequivocal commitment that formal diplomatic relations were established between China and the UK. This history must not be forgotten.”
While striving for a “peaceful reunification”, Mr. Zheng warned that China was ready to do “whatever it takes” to regain control of the island, which has its own military and a democratic government that rejects Beijing’s claims of sovereignty.
“We hope that the UK government will honour the solemn commitments it made in 1972… and handle Taiwan-related issues prudently and properly in line with the One-China principle.”
The ambassador’s comments will pile further pressure on Sir Keir Starmer at a time when the Prime Minister is already facing accusations of appeasing Beijing.
For weeks, the Government has been dogged by accusations that it deliberately collapsed the espionage trial of former parliamentary aide Christopher Cash and his friend Christopher Berry to avoid upsetting the Chinese.
Technology & Business Editor