I have relatives visiting from Taiwan this month and last, studying hard at a local English language school.  They have been doing a lot of sightseeing which has been good fun, but as usual when people visit from abroad questions are raised about our imperial past which we seem to have forgotten in the UK.

The key question is should we return all the historical artefacts in the British and other museums that we didn’t purchase or receive as gifts?   For me the answer is an emphatic yes and until we do return these items we will struggle to rid ourselves of our reputation as imperial power abroad. This reputation hinders us in international negotiations and in efforts to increase the spread of democracy abroad.  

For people from Taiwan this as an especially emotive issue as they have a very large number of artefacts from China in their National Palace Museum.  There is a difference though, as these treasures were taken to protect them from destruction at the hands of communists keen to rid China of icons of inequality.  As over 10 percent of the Taiwanese citizens are from mainland China, it could be argued they were taking the treasures with them as they left. 

I don’t want to be seen as anti-patriotic, but it is worth noting that a significant proportion of the world’s population appears to see us in an imperial light, rightly or wrongly.  I certainly support our national teams in sport and where decisions have been made to send our troops abroad I wish them every success and a swift return home with minimum casualties on all sides.  However, if we are to be able to use soft political power abroad to influence the development of the world, rather like the Scandinavian nations are able to do at present, we still need to overcome our past.