One of Scotland’s biggest local authorities has pulled contentious plans to sign an official ‘friendship arrangement’ with a major Taiwanese city amid reported warnings and threats from Chinese officials, as well as concerns from major Scottish businesses.
Councillors in Edinburgh had been due to consider the five-year-long deal between Scotland’s capital and the port city of Kaohsiung later this week. However, the proposal has now been withdrawn from Thursday’s full meeting of the council, with leader Cammy Day accepting that “more discussion is required”, having taken into account “the views of the business community and other partners”
Councillors in Edinburgh had been due to consider the five-year-long deal between Scotland’s capital and the port city of Kaohsiung later this week. However, the proposal has now been withdrawn from Thursday’s full meeting of the council, with leader Cammy Day accepting that “more discussion is required”, having taken into account “the views of the business community and other partners”
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's daily bulletin for Tuesday. I'm Alan Young, I am
00:15deputy editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined today by our investigations correspondent
00:19Martin McLaughlin to talk through the big story of the day. Hi Martin.
00:23Hi Alan.
00:24Let's have a look at the front page and you can see there we read on Martin's story and
00:30it is around Edinburgh backing away from signing a friendship arrangement with a Taiwanese
00:38city and this follows threats from China and the threats related to the number of Chinese
00:47students who are studying in Edinburgh obviously worth a lot of money to the city and to the
00:52country as a whole. So Martin, talk us through this really interesting story.
00:59It is Alan, normally when we cover local authorities you know the focus of it is very
01:05much on local regional issues but Edinburgh City Council appear to have unwittingly waded
01:11into a full-blown diplomatic crisis or certainly what could have been one. Khamideh, the council
01:17leader has been forging quite close ties with Taiwan over the past few years and he
01:22sees a lot of similarities between Edinburgh and Taiwan both kind of up-and-coming prosperous
01:27tech-led cities and he's been out and met with Taiwanese delegates and he's been trying
01:33to forge closer links between the city and Taiwan. To that end the council was due to
01:40meet this Thursday to discuss what was called a friendship arrangement with a Taiwanese city
01:48but that item was pulled from the agenda earlier this week. Mr Day has said that they need more
01:54time to discuss this issue before moving it forward but he's still of the view that it's
01:59the kind of relationship that would be a positive for Edinburgh. Not everyone agrees on that. There
02:05has been really ferocious lobbying behind the scenes on this to try and shut down this friendship
02:12arrangement not least by the Chinese consulate in Edinburgh. There is a view that this deal if it
02:21was ratified would have been seen as a formal arrangement between Edinburgh and Taiwan which
02:28would contravene the kind of long-standing one China policy which is recognised not only by the
02:34UK government but the Scottish government and so a lot of businesses in the city with
02:40quite extensive Chinese investment, Chinese links and Chinese routes like Edinburgh airport for
02:46example have also made representations to the council and this all seems to have contributed
02:51to the decision to pull the item. Just give us the background for anyone who maybe isn't
03:00aware and this would be seen by the Chinese authorities as essentially recognising Taiwan
03:07and this goes back a long way where China essentially consider Taiwan as Chinese territory.
03:15Absolutely that's right and you know the Chinese are relaxed up into a point about relationships
03:21with Taiwan. You know you need only visit Edinburgh in August to see lots of Taiwanese performers,
03:27companies and themed events promoting the Taiwanese culture. This is a kind of
03:34soft power which is accepted and kind of tolerated by China but when it comes to anything that's more
03:41formal there is a view that that is breaking a long-standing kind of diplomatic accord and you
03:49know this whole story does raise wider questions about the extent of Chinese influence over
03:55Scottish public life. This is not something that's been raised by critics of China and China.
04:03This is something that's been raised by members of Scotland's party of government and Stuart
04:08Macdonald the SNP's former defence spokesman has spoken out previously about the kind of
04:14growing influence and the unease that that should cause people in Scotland. Obviously we have a huge
04:22amount of Chinese students in Scotland and that's a major part of the economy but a story like this
04:28should and hopefully will prompt you know a bit of discussion about how far this can go before
04:35you know decisions taken by a local authority become full-blown scandals.
04:40Indeed and what's the reaction been like so far?
04:44So far there is I think from the businesses who have Chinese ties there's a palpable sense of
04:52relief and there was genuine concerns that were this deal to have been agreed and it could have
04:58led to you know Chinese investment getting pulled and obviously there was briefings that if this
05:05deal had gone through and China's backlash could have gone even further there could have been visas
05:11pulled for Scottish students not just in Edinburgh but across Scotland which have been would have been
05:16devastating for higher education at a time when it doesn't have its problems to seek.
05:21So it's one of relief but Cammy Day has made it quite clear he thinks this is a good idea and
05:27it seems as if it's something that he wishes to pursue and whether that is a feeling shared by
05:34his colleagues at the council we can't quite tell but certainly there's a lot of kind of
05:40opposition to it there's a lot of support for it so I don't think it's over yet.
05:44Interesting sorry thanks very much for that. Martin we'll keep a close eye on developments
05:49throughout the day obviously and please do watchscotsman.com where we'll have all the very
05:55latest news and analysis. If you can do subscribe then you'll be able to read and watch absolutely
06:00everything we do and if you're out and about today please do pick up a copy of the paper
06:04for me and for Martin. Bye for now.