As the UK continues its post-Brexit tilt toward the Indo-Pacific, a stable relationship with Taiwan is more critical than ever. Maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait is a strategic priority for the UK as the economic impact of a conflict would dwarf the inflationary blowback from the war in Ukraine. Sea and air trade routes would be upended, and supply chains disrupted. The supply of semiconductors, the brains of all modern electronic equipment, would come to a screeching halt, as Taiwan continues to manufacture 90 percent of high-end chips. The car industry, one of Britain’s key manufacturing sectors, would be especially hard-hit.

Relations between the UK and Taiwan should form a vital economic, security, and cultural partnership. Through two-way trade and investment; an increased UK regional naval presence to ensure open trade routes; enhanced interoperability between the UK, its AUKUS partners, and other regional allies; and diplomatic efforts with Beijing aimed at deconfliction, the UK-Taiwan partnership can better help shape a free and open Indo-Pacific.

The Henry Jackson Society is pleased to gather a panel of experts to launch its latest report.

Darren G. Spinck is an Associate Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society’s Asia Studies Centre. He is also managing partner of Washington Consulting Solutions, a US-based public affairs agency, where he focuses on policy analysis, strategic message development, and public advocacy programmes.

Mr. Spinck authored the May 2023 Henry Jackson report, “Strengthening US-UK Relations to Counter China’s Growing Geopolitical Ambition”. As a Vice President at public affairs firm Hannaford Enterprises, he managed a public affairs project for Taiwan and managed media activities (strategic messaging, media relations, and commentary development) with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington, DC, for recognition of the 30th anniversary of the US Congress Taiwan Relations Act, which authorizes America’s de facto diplomatic relations with Taipei and guarantees Taiwan’s security through the sales of arms and other assurances.

He is a regular speaker at the Economic Forum in Krynica and Karpacz, Poland and the Foundation Institute for Eastern Studies’ Europe-Ukraine Forum in Rzeszow, Poland, focusing his discussions on the risks of China’s growing influence in Central and Eastern Europe and US policy toward Ukraine.  He was an international election observer with the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America for Ukraine’s 2019 presidential election.

Mr. Spinck gained a BA in journalism, specializing in public relations, from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, and an MA in international commerce and public policy from George Mason University’s Graduate School of Public Policy, Arlington, VA.

Dr Michael Reilly has been a Senior Fellow in the Taiwan Studies Programme at the University of Nottingham since 2015. A former British diplomat, his final position was as the British representative in Taiwan from 2005 – 2009. From 2011-2014 he was the chief representative in China for BAE Systems. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Taiwan Institute and was a Visiting Fellow at Academia Sinica in Taipei in 2016 and 2019. His most recent book, The Great Free Trade Myth: British Foreign Policy and East Asia since 1980, was published in 2020.

Sam Olsen is the VP of the Adarga Research Institute. His areas of focus are Chinese-Western relations and comparative national influence, and his related commentary has been extensively published, including in The Spectator and The South China Morning Post.

Previously, Sam lived in Asia for a decade and worked extensively across China, specialising in the interface between data, geopolitics, and national and corporate strategy. Before that he served in the US Senate working on China trade policy, and was an officer in the British Army. He is a graduate of Oxford University.

This photo is a property of https://members.parliament.uk/member/4745/portrait

Rob Butler has been the Conservative MP for Aylesbury since the General Election in 2019. He has a wide range of political interests, notably foreign affairs and trade (especially the Middle East and North Africa, the Indo-Pacific and the Commonwealth), the criminal justice system (he was a member of the Justice Select Committee before briefly serving as Minister for Prisons, Probation and Youth Justice), defence (he is a member of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme) and the economy – especially for small businesses, of which there are a very high number in his constituency.

Professionally, Rob was a television news presenter and then international communications advisor prior to his election. Rob has been s Vice Chair of the APPG on Taiwan since 2022 and joined the APPG’s delegation to Taipei in March 2023.

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EVENT SUMMARY

The Henry Jackson Society was pleased to host the report launch event with Darren G. Spinck, Sam Olsen and Dr. Michael Reilly chaired by Rob Butler MP. Darren started his remarks with the recent developments on Taiwan’s security and China’s continuing threat to the country’s stability. He stated that UK government’s Taiwan policy would be defining the show of UK’s post-Brexit influence in Asia Pacific. Sam continued by outlining the risks that the UK and its partners would be facing in the case of China taking over Taiwan and stressed the importance of Taiwan’s chip sector. He also talked about how UK can help Taiwan by supporting her on the international stage. Dr Reilly added the need to continue with the status quo through diplomatic actions towards China. In this respect, he suggested including Taiwan in the CPTPP and to try to cooperate further with Japan to increase the security of Taiwan. In the Q&A session there were questions raised about the long-term strategy for the security of Taiwan, the current UK government’s strategy including for the domestic chip production in light of Chinese investments and the upcoming US elections.

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