London: Taiwan’s representative to the United Kingdom, Vincent Yao, has been invited by the U.K.’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) to testify in a hearing scheduled for Monday on societal resilience. The hearing will also feature Paul Huijts, the Dutch ambassador to the U.K., as both officials provide oral evidence on their respective strategies for building national resilience, civil defense preparedness, and safeguarding information environments and supply chains from potential disruptions.

According to Focus Taiwan, the JCNSS comprises prominent parliamentarians who lead committees on critical issues such as national defense, foreign affairs, business and trade, and home affairs. Matt Western, chair of the JCNSS, emphasized the importance of societal resilience, describing it as one of the biggest challenges facing the U.K. “The Committee’s new inquiry will consider how we can build national resilience in the U.K. and help the public to understand the threats we face,” Western stated. He highlighted the significance of learning from other countries, noting that evidence from the ambassadors of Taiwan and the Netherlands would be instrumental in this process.

Historically, it is a rare occurrence for a U.K. committee to extend an invitation to the top Taiwanese diplomat or senior Taiwanese official for testimony. Public records indicate that in 2019, Chen Liang-gee, then Taiwan’s Minister of Science and Technology, was invited by the U.K. House of Commons Education Committee to share Taiwan’s experiences in AI development. In 2021, former Taiwanese legislator Jason Hsu of the Kuomintang participated in an online testimony conducted by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.