IN British colonial days, there was a derogatory term in banking circles to refer to stock traders and dealers who left the City of London and migrated to Britain’s lucrative imperial possession in China: the acronym used was “Filth” — Failed in London Try Hong Kong.

With their allies in Hong Kong hamstrung by the belated introduction of the National Security Law, which has uprooted US- and British-sponsored political groups, a British-Taiwanese all-party parliamentary group delegation led by Tory MP Bob Stewart, but also including Labour MPs, has recently visited Taiwan.

“Failed in Hong Kong try Taiwan” doesn’t make for an easy acronym but it sums up the strategy of British imperialism about China today.

The British-Taiwanese all-party parliamentary group is predominantly Tory but it also includes members from the Official and Democratic Unionist parties in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland, Lib Dems, crossbenchers and Labour MPs Sarah Champion and Nic Smith.

The group’s website, taiwanappg.org.uk, is sponsored by the Taiwan Representative Office in Britain, whose link helpfully redirects to www.taiwanembassy.org, the Taiwanese diplomatic overseas portal.

According to the group’s mission statement: “The British-Taiwanese all-party parliamentary group was founded in 1976 and has since become one of the largest parliamentary groups of its kind. Its purpose is to facilitate the bilateral relations of the United Kingdom and Taiwan, which includes the promotion of trade, mutual understanding and cultural associations between the two countries [sic].”

This visit represents yet another incremental step toward the dangerous repudiation of Britain’s longstanding approach to its One China policy and is closely linked to the British involvement in the increasing danger of war across the Taiwan Strait.

Unsurprisingly, the six-day tour has been covered prominently by the daily Establishment voice for war and liberalism, the Guardian.

Helen Davidson, the Guardian’s Taipei-based correspondent, wrote: “The One China principle is a domestic Chinese edict which encompasses its claim over Taiwan.

“Other governments maintain their own One China policies, which dictate the varying levels of recognition given to China’s principle,” (British MPs call for ‘as much help as possible’ for Taiwan to defend against China, Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin, Guardian, March 23).

The One China principle is not a “domestic edict,” it is an internationally recognised policy. Only a dozen territories and countries refuse to recognise the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but they do so by maintaining relations with the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan instead.

In other words, they too recognise the One China principle, they simply disagree with which state they prefer.

The One China principle has been recognised by the UN since 1971 when Chiang Kai-shek’s ROC was booted out of the UN and its subsidiary bodies in favour of the PRC at the UN, and crucially when the PRC took over the ROC’s seat as a permanent member of the security council.

Crucially, it has been the explicit position of the British government since 1972, although Britain’s recognition of the PRC was much earlier, dating back to 1950.

A secondary point, which is necessary given the mainstream Establishment media’s framing of the question, is that the PRC does not unilaterally express a “claim” over Taiwan — Taipei’s constitution makes a reciprocal claim over the PRC mainland, as I showed in a previous article.

However, to mention these overlapping claims would both reinforce the PRC’s position as well as open Taiwan’s claims to ridicule.

What is Britain’s official position on Taiwan? Let’s quote directly from a memorandum submitted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office dated 2000.

“Taiwan was ceded to the Japanese under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. At the end of the Pacific war, Taiwan was occupied by the Nationalist troops of the ROC. Following their defeat in the civil war in China, the remnants of the Nationalist administration fled to Taiwan.

“For many years, the Nationalist administration in Taiwan maintained its claim to be the legitimate government of the whole of China, a claim also made by the government of the People’s Republic (PRC).

“Although the ROC constitution still lays claim to sovereignty over the mainland, the administration has in practice long since stopped denying that there is another legitimate government in power on the mainland (ie one (notional) country, two separate non-overlapping jurisdictions).”

This is essentially correct, although we need to note that the Treaty of Shimonoseki was imposed by the Japanese on China after the defeat of the Qing dynasty in the Sino-Japanese war.

The Foreign Office document notes that the British government (HMG), “recognised the government of the PRC in 1950. We retained a British Consulate in Tamsui outside Taipei, accredited to the provincial authorities of Taiwan, until 1972.

“At that time, an agreement was signed with the PRC allowing for an exchange of ambassadors with China. The consulate was withdrawn at that time and since then there has been no official UK representation in Taiwan.

“Under the terms of the 1972 agreement with China, HMG acknowledged the position of the government of the PRC that Taiwan was a province of the PRC and recognised the PRC government as the sole legal government of China.

“This remains the basis of our relations with Taiwan. We do not deal with the Taiwan authorities on a government-to-government basis, and we avoid any act which could be taken to imply recognition.”

In a month when Honduras has ended its diplomatic ties with Taipei in favour of Beijing and when Taiwan’s former leader Ma Ying-jeou will make a historic visit to mainland China, this trip by British MPs goes against the grain of global diplomacy.

Unfortunately, this is in tandem with Western efforts to militarise frictions between the mainland and Taiwan.

Reuters reported on March 13 that, according to the Export Control Organisation, which sits within Britain’s Department for International Trade, in the first nine months of 2022, the British government granted 25 licences, totalling £167 million to companies exporting submarine-related components and tech to Taiwan.

The figure was more than the previous six years combined, and up from the £3.3m approved in 2008, the first year of such exports to Taiwan, according to Reuters news agency.

Reuters also reported on March 13 that Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, head of Parliament’s defence committee, commented: “An announcement of the specific nature of these exports risks revealing sensitive information on Taiwan’s defensive capabilities and some of the British government’s caution in discussing these exports is valid.”

Both the anti-war and labour movement need to expose Britain’s role in the militarisation of the Taiwan issue and the slide towards a multi-party consensus that rejects the One China principle. Otherwise, the British government’s path will lead step-by-step to war.