First, it was the Chagos Islands. Then it was David Lammy’s visit. Now many in Westminster are asking: when it comes to China, where does this government draw the line? In recent weeks it has been reported that Labour is both dropping plans to classify Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims as a ‘genocide’ and is pushing to reopen trade talks via the Jetco forum. So much for getting tough on Xi eh?
Mr S hears word though that already a backlash is under way. The seven current and former parliamentarians who were sanctioned by China in March 2021 have fired off an angry reprimand to Lammy, in the wake of his visit to Beijing. In a letter seen by The Spectator, the likes of Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Tom Tugendhat and Neil O’Brien have co-signed a statement to Lammy addressing rumours of ‘a deal whereby our sanctions might be lifted in exchange for the UK withdrawing sanctions against those who have mercilessly persecuted the Uyghur community’.
Such a proposal would be ‘beneath contempt and must be rejected’, they warn. The group says that:
Each of us would rather remain unjustly sanctioned by the CCP than to insult the suffering of the Uyghur community by comparing the genocidal atrocities they have endured with what has happened to us. Such a tit-for-tat exchange would show Beijing that they can evade accountability by imposing entirely unjust penalties upon foreign lawmakers. We must not do it.
The letter – co-signed by Baroness Kennedy, Lord Alton, Nus Ghani and Tim Loughton – notes how the Labour party ‘stood so strongly with the Uyghur community in opposition’ and urges them to ‘make clear to the Uyghur community that the many lives destroyed in Xinjiang mean something.’
Will they now do so?
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