pupils are being told that Taiwan is part of China as part of a government-funded scheme.
Teaching material available to English secondary schools as part of the Mandarin Excellence Programme repeatedly suggests Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China. This view is contested, since Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state distinct from Beijing.
About 8,000 pupils in 75 state secondary schools are enrolled on the programme, which was set up in 2016 to teach the Chinese language to schoolchildren.
Most mentions of Taiwan suggested to pupils that the region belonged to mainland China, including on maps and study sheets.
One exercise drawn up in 2022 for Year 8 pupils, which specifically states that it is for the Mandarin Excellence Programme, asks students: “Where is Taiwan? Do you know Taiwan is part of China?”
Sources claimed the lesson content was not mandatory and there was no suggestion all pupils on the programme had been taught using this material.
6 additional maps included in lesson material available for the scheme also labelled Taiwan as part of China — 4 of which identified Tibet as such, too.
Just one reference to Taiwan’s contested status was found in a study guide produced in 2020, which is still available, stating that “China has 22 provinces (23 if you choose to include Taiwan)”. Other teaching material in the scheme is more critical of Beijing’s broader policies.
Pupils enrolled on the Mandarin Excellence Programme receive up to 8 hours of Chinese teaching each week. The scheme is delivered by University College London’s Institute of Education (IOE) in partnership with the British Council, and receives funding from the Department for Education.
The Government handed the programme about £4.1M in funding last year, but this was cut to £2.4M in 2025-26 as part of broader education cuts.
The use of maps labelling Taiwan as part of China has been a thorny issue for universities in recent years. The London School of Economics became entangled in a diplomatic row in 2019 after unveiling a giant globe sculpture on its campus in which Taiwan was illustrated as a sovereign state.
The university faced pressure from Chinese students to alter Taiwan’s colour on the artwork to match that of China, but instead decided to insert an asterisk next to the island’s name after Taiwan’s president intervened.
Lesson content is available through the Mandarin Resources for Schools portal on the programme’s website, which is hosted by UCL’s Confucius Institute for Schools.
The website states it launched the portal in 2020 as a “repository of teaching resources that will be useful for teachers of Chinese, whether for delivery of the Mandarin Excellence Programme or Chinese language teaching in schools in general”.
Two of the study sheets labelling Taiwan as part of China were produced by UCL itself, while the others were created independently by teachers and uploaded to the portal by the university.
It is unclear how many schools have used the material, but a UCL spokesman insisted there was no centralized curriculum and that teachers could choose their own lesson content.
“It’s utterly disappointing to see UCL and the Mandarin Excellence Programme parrot Chinese Communist Party narratives on Taiwan. These narratives are not only one-sided, they’re also not reflective of the reality — where Taiwan exists as a de-facto self-governing state separate from the People’s Republic of China.”
UCL’s IOE also runs a network of 43 “Confucius Classrooms” across England teaching Chinese to schoolchildren.
UCL chairman Victor Chu (諸立力) had previously failed to declare his links to the pro-Beijing leader of Hong Kong. The businessman claimed it “may have been an oversight” not to declare his unpaid role advising John Lee, who’s been criticized for repressing pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong on behalf of Beijing. Chu has since updated his register of interests.
https://telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/04/british-pupils-told-taiwan-is-part-of-china/…
pupils are being told that Taiwan is part of 
China as part of a government-funded scheme.
Teaching material available to English secondary schools as part of the Mandarin Excellence Programme repeatedly suggests Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China. This view is contested, since Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state distinct from Beijing.
About 8,000 