June 2024 Friendship Visit of Taiwan’s Team in Britain to Liverpool City Region Led By His Excellency Vincent Yao and Hosted By Lord (David) Alton.
On their arrival at Liverpool Lime Street Station, Professor (Lord) David Alton greeted his Excellency Vincent Yao and his team for a diplomatic and friendship building visit to Liverpool City Region.
They paid their respects to Liverpool’s renowned comedian, Sir Ken Dodd, and his tickling stick, and to Liverpool’s one time MP, Bessie Braddock – holding her egg (she was the politician responsible for putting the lion standard mark on British eggs)
The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Richard Kemp CBE and former Lord Mayor, Erica Kemp CBE, greeted Vincent Yao on his arrival at Liverpool Town Hall – where he was also able to meet with Councillor Natalie Byron-Teare, the Mayor of the City of Douglas on the Isle of Man.
Cllr.Kemp showed Taiwan’s most senior diplomat to the UK the Town Hall’s beautiful state rooms and its memorials to Liverpool’s fallen mariners and servicemen who had died in their defence of democracy and freedom.
They visited the City Council’s debating Chamber where 52 years ago David Alton was first elected, while a Liverpool student, aged 21 – and where he served as the City’s Deputy Leader and Housing Chairman, later elected as a Liverpool MP in five successive parliamentary elections, until standing down from the House of Commons, and becoming an Independent Life Peer.
Earlier, in Birkenhead, the Taiwan delegation met senior officials – Phil Waterhouse, Mike Hill and Ruth Wood – at the APCL Boardroom and were briefed on the outstanding achievements of Cammell Laird, the Port of Liverpool, and Merseyside Maritime. Contributing £5 billion to the local economy, providing work for 48,000 employees, with productivity higher than the UK average, and hundreds of applicants for their top of the range apprenticeships, the visitors saw important work being undertaken on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, ship repairs, and ship building.
Later, the Taiwanese Delegation visited Liverpool’s renowned Albert Dock, spent time at the Beatles Museum – sharing a love of popular music.
They met with members of the Hong Kong BNO community, 144,000 of whom have been forced to flee from Hong Kong after the CCP’s destruction of “two systems one country” and the imprisonment of 1800 pro democracy supporters.
During a meeting with the Liverpool City’s Opposition Leader, Councillor Carl Cashman, the delegation discussed a variety of issues: including CCP cyber threats to free elections and its use of surveillance technology; links between dictatorships and authoritarian regimes threatening democratic nations; the need for the UK to reduce its £40 billion trade deficit with the PRC; and the urgency of increasing UK manufacturing and resilience while ending its dependency on cheap goods made in the PRC by Uyghur slave labour. They discussed the daily incursions into Taiwanese air space, threatening world peace, and the £10 trillion risk to the world economy -should the PRC blockade the Taiwan Straits. Cllr.Cashman noted that Taiwan’s recently elected President, Lai Ching-te, is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, a sister party member of Liberal International.
The delegation discussed the crucial role of Taiwan in developing world beating new technologies, especially the highest grade semiconductors and the future role of Artificial Intelligence.
They visited Liverpool’s China Town and the city’s two cathedrals – and heard about restrictions imposed by the PRC on political and religious freedom – including the persecution of Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and Chinese Christians. They also met with Taiwanese students studying at the City’s universities.
Lord Alton said “His Excellency and his team were given a wonderful reception everywhere they went, with many people commenting on the courage and bravery of Taiwan’s peace loving 23 million people and its vibrant democracy. ”
