Over late September and October, the TRO participated in the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative Party conferences across the UK in order to promote bilateral exchanges and interactions.
From 16-17 September, Deputy Representative Shyang-Yun Cheng and Political Division Director Chia-Cheng Chang attended the Liberal Democrats’ Autumn Conference 2019 in Bournemouth, including a diplomatic reception, presentation and speech by Party Leader Jo Swinson. In addition to meeting Jo Swinson, Deputy Representative Cheng also spoke with House of Lords LGBT Spokesperson Baroness Liz Barker, Liberal Democrat Party President Baroness Brinton, Party Chief Whip Alistair Carmichael and Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary and Trade and International Development Chuka Umunna, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Spokesperson Baroness Lindsay Northover as well as Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords Baroness Garden of Frognal. Deputy Representative Cheng urged party members to strengthen the Taiwan-UK relationship, as well as exchanged views on political developments in the UK and Brexit.
On 23 September, Representative Lin, Director Chang and Deputy Director Alex Huang participated in the Labour Party Conference 2019 in Brighton. They attended several events, including the morning and afternoon plenary sessions “New Economy” and “New Internationalism” as well as the Labour Party Faith Reception and Labour Lords Reception, where they met and exchanged ideas with Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn, Deputy Leader Tom Watson, Party Chair Ian Lavery, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry and many other Labour politicians.
From 1-2 October, Representative Lin and TRO officials travelled to Manchester to attend the Conservative Party Conference 2019. Representative Lin met with Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union Lord Callanan, Party Vice Chairman Paul Scully, Party Vice-Chairman (International) Alec Shelbrooke and former Minister of State at the Department for International Development Sir Desmond Swayne. During these meetings, Representative Lin exchanged views with party members on the UK’s political development and Brexit, and discussed the positive outcomes of the 22nd round of UK-Taiwan trade talks in London.