Edinburgh halts deal with Taiwanese city over fears of China backlash

Edinburgh city council has put on hold a proposed friendship agreement with a city in Taiwan after businesses expressed concerns about a backlash from the Chinese government.

The council had been considering the deal with Kaohsiung, with which Edinburgh has been developing closer ties. The proposal elicited the attention of diplomats from China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan.

“Having taken on board the views of the business community and other partners, we’ve decided that more discussion is required before taking this agreement forward,” said Cammy Day, the council leader. The dialogue would continue, he added.

The incident exposes the extent of Chinese pressure, real or imagined, on even modest engagement with Taiwan as well as the growing dependence on China among Scottish businesses and universities.

Such city-to-city friendship agreements, which are made between municipal authorities, seek to bolster economic, educational and cultural exchange.

The council had put the agreement out for consultation with businesses and institutions in the city that have significant international exposure, such as the University of Edinburgh, the chamber of commerce, the airport and other tourism-related groups.

They were collectively concerned about a detrimental impact on Chinese trade, tourists and students if the agreement was completed without a detailed look at the consequences of riling Beijing.

“We’ve spent years building up the relationship with China,” said one person briefed on the discussions. “It just isn’t worth jeopardising it all over a friendship agreement.”

Some of these business groups had also been contacted by Chinese diplomats in Edinburgh, who work out of a large consulate in the Murrayfield area of the capital. “They were none too pleased about the agreement,” the person said.

Edinburgh Airport said the council’s own report on the agreement had identified risks, such as the benefits of the current relationship with China.

“We felt it would be wise for all of us to better understand the potential extent of the risks involved to allow all of us to make a fully informed decision,” said the airport.

The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A third person briefed on the agreement said it was only a “city to city exchange without any political sensitivities”.

“British cities increasingly run the risk of having their policies and their decision-making being dictated by China,” said Mark Sabah, director of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation.

He said the Kaohsiung agreement could have yielded financial, educational and technological relationships that had now been “halted” by the Chinese Communist party.

“The fact that local businesses have called the local council to withdraw shows just how fearful British companies are,” he added.

In 2023, Chinese visitors accounted for 1 per cent of all overseas visits to Scotland and 3 per cent of international spending in the country. China ranks as Scotland’s fifth-largest long-haul international market in terms of visitors.

The growing number of Chinese students in Edinburgh has transformed the Southside area of the city near the university, with new restaurants and supermarkets catering for the growing Asian population.

Of the roughly 150,000 Chinese students in the UK in the 2021-22 academic year, about 21,000 study in Scotland — where Glasgow university has about 9,000 and Edinburgh university about 6,850, according to the latest data.

Edinburgh university said it was “contributing to discussions” about the friendship agreement with Kaohsiung.