That this House takes note of government policy towards China especially in relation to human rights and security issues arising from China’s actions in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, and the South China Sea, and against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
My Lords, in opening this last debate of the year, which will focus on human rights and security issues arising from China’s actions in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet and the South China Sea, I begin by thanking everyone who will speak in the debate, along with the House of Lords Library for its excellent briefing note and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China for its critical role and for its support and assistance. I declare interests as an officer of the all-party groups on Hong Kong, the Uighurs, and Freedom of Religion or Belief, and as a patron of Hong Kong Watch. I also note that today has symbolic significance, because on this day 40 years ago, the Sino-British treaty was signed by Margaret Thatcher and Zhao Ziyang.
China’s human rights violations and the growing security challenges posed by Beijing’s international posture are well documented and will raise profound questions during this debate about our principles, security and strategic resilience. In this week of all weeks, we have seen more evidence of the threats to our domestic security and institutions. Commenting on the activities of the 40,000 agents of the United Front Work Department, our Intelligence and Security Committee says that the UFWD has penetrated
“every sector of the United Kingdom economy”.
MI5’s head, Ken McCallum, says infiltration is on an “epic scale”. It is extraordinary, then, in those circumstances for the Prime Minister to be pressing for closer ties with the Chinese Communist Party regime and to say that we should no longer describe it as a threat.
This may not be Maclean and Burgess, Philby and Blunt, but subversion of our state and its institutions involves manipulation and entrapment, influencing and cyberattacks, and intimidation, threats and transnational repression. Not long ago, the Foreign Secretary wanted this regime prosecuted for genocide.
In setting the scene for the debate today, let me begin in Hong Kong. In 2019, it was a privilege to be one of the international team which monitored the last fair and free election in a city that was once a bastion of freedom in Asia. Since 2020 and the enactment of the draconian national security law, it has seen every vestige of democracy dismantled.
The consequences are stark: over 1,200 political prisoners languish in jails, including prominent figures such as the British citizen, Jimmy Lai, with exiled legislators such as Nathan Law facing bounties placed on their heads simply for advocating democracy. Recent Human Rights Watch analysis has highlighted increasing transnational repression aimed at British national (overseas)—BNO—passport holders and their families and even at non-Hong Kong residents, threatening critics abroad with extradition. Recalling the attacks on protesters outside the Manchester consulate, which the Foreign Affairs Select Committee described as a
My Lords, I begin by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for securing this debate and for all that he said in his opening remarks. His speech was a devastating analysis of the real world. If this Government and this House fail to pay attention to what he said, we are doing ourselves and our fellow countrymen a disservice. This important debate is timely, and I hope it will be influential in shaping our own Government’s thinking, even if we will have little effect on the Government of China.
It would have been a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, whose reputation as a campaigner for human rights is well known, but she apologises, and has asked me to apologise for her, as she has a pressing family engagement that she cannot avoid.
I have two interests relevant to this debate to declare. The first is that I am a trustee of the China Oxford Scholarship Fund, a small charity founded by my friend, the late Tim Beardson, about 25 years ago. He set up the fund to provide postgraduate scholarships at the University of Oxford to students from China, Hong Kong and Macau. Up to 15 scholarships are awarded annually. Preference is given to those who are studying in the United Kingdom for the first time. Successful candidates are those of the highest calibre, studying in any subject. They are chosen for their academic excellence, financial need, leadership qualities and commitment to contributing to the development of China.
Charlie Parton is a former diplomat who spent 22 years working in China and is now a senior associate fellow at RUSI. The Times reports that, at a recent conference, he
“said that on the face of it there was nothing wrong with collaboration and co-operation between British and Chinese universities. A roundtable on education was fine with the right safeguards”,
but he
“warned that the issue was over science and technology, where ‘the distinction between civil uses, military uses and repression uses just melts away’ … ‘That’s where British universities have to be extra careful on co-operation.’ … Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, has previously warned that universities are ‘magnetic targets for espionage and manipulation’ and that China and other hostile states are stealing intellectual property from them with ‘dispiriting regularity’. He said he had no issue with co-operation but said it needed to be done with safeguards and the right level of awareness”.
My Lords, rather like Christmas, which seems to come around faster every year, so the opportunity to change British policy on China seems to come around rapidly. Under the coalition but particularly, one sensed, when George Osborne was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, there was a great opening up to China and a great interest in having investment. We then saw a pivot to thinking that China was perhaps a threat and a country with which we should not necessarily work closely—although we never stopped doing business with it. We are waiting for His Majesty’s Government’s China audit, but at the moment we have the Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s three Cs: competition, challenge and co-operation.
I am very grateful to my noble friend Lord Alton of Liverpool for bringing this very important debate this afternoon. It is indeed timely, not just because of the 40th anniversary of the Sino-British Hong Kong agreement, but precisely because there is an audit and we have very recently seen the Foreign Secretary meet his Chinese opposite number and the Prime Minister meet President Xi—the first time, as I understand it, that a British Minister met the president in six years.
In that time, many things have changed in the United Kingdom—Prime Ministers have changed almost as often as the calendar—but in China, very little has changed. If you have a president for life, long-term policy-making can be very different, so Chinese planning for security and Chinese actions against Tibetans and Uighurs persist. At this point I must briefly mention an interest, in that I have recently become a trustee of the Parliamentary Human Rights Trust. I do not think it directly affects this debate, but I thought I should mention it because clearly, one of the concerns that this House, the International Relations and Defence Committee and committees in the other place have long had is precisely human rights issues in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang.
I am very grateful to my friend, the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, for securing this vital and urgent debate. I congratulate him on his election as chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights. There is no one better qualified to fulfil that role.
If we are to understand China from the perspective of human rights, security or trade, or indeed from any other perspective, we must see the country in its own terms and as it sees itself rather than simply through western lenses. To understand China as she understands herself, it will not do to look at her in terms of Marxism or indeed Maoism. If once it was said of the Labour Party that it was more Methodist than Marxist, it can be fairly said of the Chinese Communist Party that it is at least as Confucianist as it is communist. At the heart of China’s concept of itself lies the concept of tianxia, a word that means “all under heaven”—and that I almost certainly mispronounce. Even in those three words, you can grasp a sense of its import. It is an ancient concept, dating at least to the start of the first millennium BC, describing a system of relations across Asia, with China as the centre of the civilised world and the apex of culture, the heart of a sage empire, spreading material benefits and wisdom to all mankind—a geopolitical system with China at the centre and the Emperor at the centre of the centre.
When Lord Macartney visited the Emperor in 1793 to discuss trade terms, the Emperor stated that China was the foremost and most divine nation on earth and had no need of foreign goods. That was a pure expression of tianxia. In subsequent decades, with the opium wars, the collapse of the empire, the disaster of the Second World War and Maoism, the concept took quite a battering, only to reassert itself now under President Xi, just as neo-tsarism has in Russia.
In contemporary China, tianxia manifests itself in the ideology of “one country, one people, one party, one leader”, and it has global implications too. In the words of Steve Tsang, the director of the SOAS China Institute, President Xi is undeterred by western objections because he believes in the moral righteousness and inevitability of Chinese global leadership. Of course he does because he believes in tianxia and, as we can see and as has been outlined in this debate, it manifests itself in Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, in the South China Sea, in aggression towards Taiwan, in transnational repression and in malign influence such as we have seen here in recent days. The belt and road initiative is just another manifestation of it. It is seen specifically in violations of religion or belief. Religious minorities—Muslims in Xinjiang, Buddhists in Tibet, Falun Gong and Christians across China—must be repressed because they do not accept that ultimate authority rests with the one at the heart of the system, as tianxia dictates.
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the right reverend Prelate. There was much in his reflections; he was looking at things from having a lens on a country he knows. From the various discussions we have had, I agree with him in totality.
I thank my dear friend, the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for tabling this debate. I must admit that I am no longer the target of his daily emails and phone calls as a Minister. That is missed, I think, in some shape or form, but I am sure that the new Government are receiving them with welcoming arms. I pay tribute to the noble Lord for his perseverance on a whole raft of human rights issues—despite, let us be clear, the many personal challenges and attacks that he faces, including sanctions, in standing up for the oppressed and persecuted around the world.
I turn first, though, to governance. We hear that in early 2025, the Government will provide an audit. What exactly will be its format and the presentation to Parliament? I am sure that the Minister will cover this in her concluding remarks, but I request that, once that is done, she facilitates a meeting with Members of your Lordships’ House on this important element.
Linked to this, however, I have an equally relevant question on the material difference between the Government’s approach and that of the previous Government. Noble Lords will know that the Integrated Review Refresh 2023 built our approach to China at that time. It was cross-government and focused on three pillars. The first was “Protect”. The UK would
“strengthen our national security protections in those areas where the actions of the CCP pose a threat to our people, prosperity and security”.
We would prioritise cybersecurity and defensive capabilities, while strengthening
“protections for academic freedom and university research”.
5:08 pm
The Lord Bishop of Guildford
My Lords, as the grandson of former medical missionaries in south-west China, I take great interest in this debate. As others have expressed, I am really grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for his remarkable and indefatigable commitment to human rights and freedom of religion or belief all around the world. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad—it is a privilege to speak after him—for his huge commitment in this area over many years.
I share with my forebears a deep respect for the Chinese people, their culture, their discipline and their character, but I have been horrified by stories of the oppression and maltreatment of religious minorities and critics of the regime over very many years. I have paid several illuminating visits to China to witness that for myself. This afternoon, like others, I wish to highlight the desperate situation of Uighur Muslims in the north-western region of Xinjiang, whom the other place has declared as being subject to genocide. Specifically, I urge His Majesty’s Government to ensure that the screening of goods made in forced labour camps—everything from solar panels to tomatoes—prevents them being imported into this country.
The challenges faced by Uighur Muslims are now well-documented. They are herded into so-called vocational skills, education and training centres, surrounded by guards who operate a shoot-to-kill policy on those who would try to escape. Subjected to mass indoctrination, forced labour and coercive sterilisation. it is hard to imagine a more egregious example of modern slavery in the world today. It was hugely encouraging that the Labour Party in opposition gave such an unwavering commitment to the call to designate these atrocities as genocide, pure and simple—or, as we might say, impure and simple.
The response of other western allies has been similarly forceful but supported by actions which His Majesty’s Government have thus far failed to match. The Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act in the USA and the EU’s forced labour investment screening mechanism already work to prevent goods from the region reaching the US and European markets. In the EU, there is a legal requirement for border officials to screen goods coming into their respective countries, while the USA has reversed the burden of proof on businesses to guarantee, so far as possible, that their supply chains are not tainted by Uighur Muslim forced labour. No such mechanism exists in the UK today, demonstrating a serious lack of alignment with our allies in an area where we should be joined at the hip.
In the last six months, two direct cargo routes have been established from Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang province, to airports in Bournemouth and Cardiff. Media reports state that European Cargo, a UK company registered in Hertfordshire, is ferrying goods to this country from an area declared to be the subject of an ongoing genocide. Meanwhile, Ministers have informed a colleague that UK Border Force currently has no power or legal obligation to search those flights, which creates a gaping loophole for those who would seek to profit from the current atrocities being experienced.
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Guildford. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Alton, on securing this debate on government policy towards China and for highlighting these grave issues. I pay tribute to him, along with other noble Lords, for dedicating his immense knowledge, experience and wisdom to the service of people and causes which can often be buried beneath the rhetoric and power of the overbearing and tyrannical state.
Noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Alton, have spoken about China’s conduct of affairs backed by a show of force. There have been violations of agreements, such as our own 1984 Sino-British joint declaration on Hong Kong, under which it was pledged to “one country, two systems” for 50 years, and the horrid violations and imprisonments that have taken place there. Taiwan has been threatened by President Xi’s refusal to rule out force for what he calls reunification, and this is to say nothing of the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities in Tibet and of the Uighurs in the western Xinjiang province, to which noble Lords have drawn attention.
As we have heard, the UK Government have set out their approach: to co-operate cautiously, to trade and to challenge. But can there really be UK co-operation as equal partners on trade and economic matters with China? Trading as equals can be the only true basis on which a western democracy such as the UK can co-operate, given China’s economic power, which is now the second-largest globally. That is based on its vast wealth, its imperviousness to WTO trade rules—on state subsidies, for example—and its untrustworthy record on IP and cyberespionage, prompting action by the US, as well as its bid for regional strategic and military dominance.
Although China is not the UK’s first trading partner but our fifth largest, we do have a trade deficit with it. Given the strategic and sensitive nature of Chinese imports into the UK and its foreign direct investment—FDI—in the UK, it has already achieved great leverage on our economy. The figures vary, but Chinese investors have around £134 billion of assets in UK industries. It is no secret, and we know openly, that these range from a large share in Hinkley Point C nuclear power station—China General Nuclear Power holds a 33.5% stake in the plant, which is owned by EDF—to a 10% share in Heathrow. It has interests in breweries that Chinese individuals have, such as Greene King, and retail outlets such as Superdrug, as well as utilities such as Northumbrian Water. Around 200 companies are in the hands of Chinese individuals from China or Hong Kong, including state-run organisations and the China Investment Corporation. What precautionary measures do the Government intend to protect the UK strategically and its vital security in power plants, energy companies, IT and electronics, against dominance by Chinese investors, state or otherwise?
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for securing this timely debate, particularly in the context of the history of Hong Kong, and for his typically powerful introduction, which is only what your Lordships’ House would expect.
I begin this final debate of 2024 with a big-picture overview of the state of the world. Geopolitically, we are an unstable, dangerous mess. The climate is running out of control, overheating visibly and obviously, and nature and biodiversity are in a state of collapse. Human lives are going backwards, in terms of poverty, hunger and inequality. We are not doing well, and that is not because we have been derailed from some ongoing train of so-called development and progress. It is a product of the nature of politics around the world in recent decades, particularly in the hugely influential United States—and us, with our own UK influences. It is a legacy of colonialism and neocolonialism, extractivism and exploitation, the enriching of the few at the expense of the many.
That is not to say that there has not been real progress in the decades since World War II—progress driven by civil society, which has developed a framework of international norms, or what we generally call human rights. They were not given over to us by states but driven by campaigners who forced us forward. Civil society action has got us to that point, but it is dependent on government action really to put it into effect—and that means that Governments have to apply these frameworks of norms and human rights, applying the judgments without fear or favour, not using them as a stick with which to beat people we dislike while quietly ignoring what we see our friends and allies doing. I would love to see a debate in your Lordships’ House similar to this one but focused on the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, which is every bit as bad as China.
Noble Lords have talked here, as I have in other contexts, about the situation with the horrendous genocide against the Uighurs and the situations in Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as the threats to Taiwan and in the South China Sea. I am not going to go back over that ground, because it has been covered well already. I want to take two different angles here. One is to say, as no one has yet said, that in this complex world, facing the threat of the planetary boundaries being exceeded, we have to talk to China. On the climate emergency and nature crisis, it is a crucially important actor. Of course, as a number of noble Lords have pointed out, it makes many of the products that we use every day; that is the trade to which the noble Baroness, Lady Lawlor, was just referring. We have to acknowledge that the responsibility for the environmental impacts of those objects that we use rests with us, as well as with China. We shall see in the coming year a real focus on a duty to prevent human rights abuses and environmental damage for our companies or supply chains. That is important to consider in this context. But it is really important to say that business interests, or indeed the need to talk about the climate and nature crisis, should not stop us from raising, at every opportunity, human rights in conversation with the Chinese regime. It should not stop us from deciding on sanctions or providing refuge to those seeking asylum from the Chinese regime.
20 of 46 shown
“brazen violation of diplomatic norms”,
we can see where this has taken us.
In a letter to the Security Minister, I recently requested a dedicated email address to be set up so that victims of CCP overseas intimidation could guarantee getting through to someone adequately trained in this very specialised crime. When the Minister comes to reply, can she say when a response might be forthcoming? Can she also say a word to those UK Hong Kongers still denied access to mandatory provident funds—an estimated £3 billion? What progress have the Government made in securing the release of this money, and what does she have to say about the role of HSBC and Standard Chartered? Did Minister West raise this matter when she recently visited Hong Kong, and, if so, what response did she receive?
Perhaps I may take the opportunity to say a word or two more about Jimmy Lai, although I know that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Garnier, and others will do so too. Mr Lai is currently on the stand, being asked spurious questions about his involvement with British nationals, including people he never met or even heard of. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found multiple violations of his freedom. For a British national who has never held a Chinese passport to be held in solitary confinement, with no consular access, to be denied access to the sacraments and to be dragged out to court to respond to an entirely fabricated narrative is simply outrageous. It certainly makes a mockery of the Sino-British joint declaration.
Does the Minister support the request by the British nationals cited during the proceedings on the case to be heard in the Hong Kong court? Will she place on record her view of the absurdity of this show trial, as well as the spurious charade of dragging foreign legislators into it? Will she also roundly condemn the recent jailing of 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders, including Joshua Wong and Benny Tai, who were sentenced to years in jail for so-called subversion? It is shocking.
I turn to the atrocities in Xinjiang and Tibet. In Tibet, the CCP continues its campaign of cultural erasure. There are systematic efforts to suppress the Tibetan language, dismantle monasteries and impose sinicisation policies. The Dalai Lama remains exiled and religious freedoms are virtually non-existent. Freedom House has ranked Tibet among the least free regions in the world, highlighting the CCP’s use of surveillance, mass arrests and propaganda to suppress Tibetan identity. Tibet’s plight and world silence are mirrored by the persecution of China’s religious believers, such as the young woman Zhang Zhan, a journalist jailed in Wuhan for seeking the truth about the origins of Covid.
Let us note the atrocities against Falun Gong practitioners and the industrial-scale repression of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. Over 1 million of the latter have been detained in camps, subjected to forced labour, indoctrination and even sterilisation. The United Nations Human Rights Office has described potential crimes against humanity, while the House of Commons, with 11 other global Parliaments and the United States Government, called it by its proper name—genocide. By virtue of the CCP’s intentional aim to prevent the births of Uighurs through forced sterilisation, it certainly meets the criteria set out in the 1948 genocide convention.
Canada has just sanctioned Chen Quanguo and Tuniyaz Erkin, two key officials responsible for Xinjiang atrocities. The UK failed to do so in 2021. Will we do so now?
What about Uighur forced labour embedded in global supply chains? The House will have seen reports on this in the Financial Times and on BBC’s “Panorama”. I have been raising this during the proceedings on the energy Bill and will have more say about it in due course. I name again Canadian Solar, a huge beneficiary, and ask: how precisely do the Government intend to root out slavery in the renewables industry? Will the Minister take this opportunity to reiterate the Business Secretary’s clear statement that he absolutely expects there to be
“no slavery in any part of the supply chain”?
How will that commitment be honoured? What will we do to prioritise supply chain resilience by diversifying imports and supporting domestic industries?
In the light of breaches of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the Proceeds of Crime Act, I am glad that the Joint Committee on Human Rights will make this the subject of an in-depth inquiry in the new year. To help that inquiry, will the Minister ask for an audit of dependency on authoritarian regimes across UK critical infrastructure? Can she update the House on whether Project Defend, which was supposed to build UK resilience, has been entirely dropped? With a trade deficit of over £23.7 billion with China, and British workers losing their jobs in the car industry—undercut by slave labour—this immoral trade is also a threat to our economy and security, undercutting resilience and deepening dependency, points often made by the noble Lords, Lord Blencathra and Lord Purvis, from whom we will hear later.
That leads me to Taiwan and the South China Sea. In May, with my noble friend Lady D’Souza and the noble Lord, Lord Rogan, I attended the inauguration of President Lai in the vibrant democracy of Taiwan, home to 23 million free people. Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense reported over 1,700 military incursions into its airspace in 2023 alone, a 40% increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, as noted in Jane’s Defence Weekly, Beijing continues to hold large-scale military drills around the island.
A conflict over Taiwan would be catastrophic, with consequences extending far beyond the region. A recent Bloomberg report estimated that a war over Taiwan could shave $10 trillion from the global economy. That is five times worse even than the impact that the horrific war in Ukraine has had. As Taiwan produces over 60% of the world’s semiconductors and 90% of advanced chips, the disruption to supply chains would be unparalleled. Of course, without these chips, nothing works. Our critical infrastructure depends on them and the devices in our pockets cannot run without them. Have the Government assessed the UK’s economic exposure to various scenarios in the Taiwan Strait, and will that be part of the China audit?
Our headaches in the South China Sea do not end there. With China’s militarisation of artificial islands in defiance of the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, undermining international maritime law, we must recognise these changed circumstances, deepen military and economic ties with Taiwan, expand freedom of navigation operations and further bolster alliances with like-minded partners in the Indo-Pacific, including Japan, Australia and ASEAN nations. AUKUS is of course a promising step in this direction, but we must commit further resources and political will. We should support Taiwan’s accession to the CPTPP.
We must also be far more aware of China’s military heft. Note the support that China has given to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It has provided Moscow with dual-use technology, expanded trade in sanctioned goods and offered diplomatic cover in multilateral forums. President Zelensky’s own adviser says that China provides over 60% of the components used to prosecute Putin’s illegal war—and that is without the supply of weaponised drones, in violation of sanctions.
A deadly quartet now led by China poses a direct challenge to the rules-based international order. As the European Council on Foreign Relations notes, the Sino-Russian alignment extends beyond Ukraine; it is aiming to reshape global norms in its favour. Russia’s war is China’s war. The CCP knows that depleted war chests make it harder to deter escalation over Taiwan. Meanwhile, China is engaged in what the former Foreign Secretary called the
“biggest military build-up in … history”.
I have sent the noble Baroness the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, and Sir Julian Lewis MP a disturbing report given to me alleging an illicit bio-weapons programme, along with a separate report on imagination technologies and China reform, which has deep connections to China’s military-industrial complex and national security establishment. I hope the noble Baroness will promise a full written reply in due course. What is clear enough is that this is a hostile state. It is ludicrous and worse to try to justify deepening business links, pouring public and private money into China’s coffers, while it is making possible an illegal war in Europe.
There is also of course an enemy within. Chinese companies dominate critical infrastructure sectors, from energy to technology—I know we will hear from the noble Lord, Lord Fox, on this—including the millions of China-made surveillance cameras right across Britain. RUSI speculates that over 80% of foreign direct investment into the UK from China comes from Chinese state-owned enterprises: heavily subsidised companies operating under the direction of a one-party state.
Universities, too, are entangled in partnerships with Chinese institutions linked to the People’s Liberation Army. Note the examples in the 2023 Civitas report, including work on artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Perhaps the Minister can tell us what we are doing to assist universities to become less reliant on CCP money—and what we did to challenge UCL, an illustrious university, when Professor Michelle Shipworth was removed from teaching a course on China, with the university saying that it conflicted with its “commercial interests”. Professor Shipworth had highlighted data from the Global Slavery Index which suggested that China had the second-highest prevalence of modern slavery in the world.
Such examples, and this debate, underline what the International Relations and Defence Committee of this House said was the need for a coherent strategy, filling what was referred to as “a strategic void”. How will the China audit attempt to fill that void, and how will it connect to the strategic defence review by the noble Lord, Lord Robertson?
To conclude, a coherent strategy would face the multifaceted challenges posed by China, strengthening our alliances, protecting national security, reducing economic dependencies and exposing authoritarian collaboration. We ought not to be persuaded by those who seek to talk down Britain by making out that we have no international clout. Capitulating now will cause greater pain later. By aligning our policies with our principles, we can safeguard our security, support those who suffer under oppression and lead by example in defending democracy on the global stage. I beg to move.
At the COSF, we are realists and more than aware of the dangers, but we are also not so naive as to think that wringing our hands will release Jimmy Lai.
That brings me to my second interest. I am a member of the Bar who specialises in media law cases and has advised plaintiffs and defendants in Hong Kong, both before and after 1997, on freedom of expression questions. But what is happening in Hong King now concerns me not just as a lawyer but as someone who believes in the rule of law, open justice and the right to say what one thinks and believes within the rule of law.
Those concepts, which we take for granted in this jurisdiction, are all under threat in Hong Kong, as the noble Lord, Lord Alton, so powerfully pointed out. That of itself is fundamentally wrong and in breach of all the principles that this Parliament stands for and any United Kingdom Government should stand for, but it is also in breach of the joint declaration made by this country and China exactly 40 years ago today, in 1984, in preparation for the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. That treaty has a 50-year life with 20 years to run. That it will become time-expired does not permit us to let it wither, be ignored or be undermined.
It is not just the national security law, inflicted on Hong Kong in 2000, that evidences the erosion of civil liberties and human rights but the daily conduct of the authorities in Hong Kong in attacking their own citizens and expatriate Hong Kong-UK citizens, making extraterritorial arrests and locking up anyone they find inconvenient or tiresome. House of Lords Library staff—I thank them for their research—tell us that some 304 people have been arrested under the NSL for
“suspected acts or activities that endanger national security”.
As we know and have seen in the press, 45 others have been jailed for “conspiring to commit subversion”. These are all ridiculous and absurd allegations. None the less, this is the daily working of the Chinese and Hong Kong Governments’ way of doing justice.
We know from open source information, and from what we can see and hear for ourselves, that the Chinese Government pay no attention to human rights or the rule of law. They pay no attention to complaints, no matter how politely delivered, by western leaders. The recent statements issued by UK Ministers and the interventions made by the Prime Minister directly with President Xi—I applaud them for making them—must be more than mere formulaic verbiage. With interlocutors who have no regard for, and perhaps do not even understand or still less care about, the concepts we are worried about, we need to use commercial leverage with our allies and be ready to cause China actual economic harm to get our message home. If that costs us as well, it will be a price worth paying, but a China that sees no diplomatic, military or monetary disadvantage in ignoring us and our allies is a China that will continue to push outwards, crush domestic dissent and assert itself at our expense. We have a choice: to act or simply to watch.
Jimmy Lai, an elderly UK citizen incarcerated in Hong Kong for simply expressing his opinion and allowing others to do so through his newspaper, not only suffers as an individual human being but stands as a representative of all those in Hong Kong under its authoritarian and unjust regime. I urge the Government not just to issue statements but to take retaliatory action to ensure that his case is dealt with properly, justly and speedily. He should be released and permitted, if he chooses, to leave Hong Kong with his wife. He should not be in prison for his thoughts and his words. Now is the time. Let us choose to act, not just to watch.
What assessment have His Majesty’s Government made of the situation in Xinjiang? The excellent report from the House of Lords Library suggests that Ministers have been talking about possible forced labour in the supply chain. Shadow Minister Mike Wood responded:
“As we move forward, all UK businesses must conduct thorough due diligence to ensure that their supply chains are free from forced labour”.—[Official Report, Commons, 6 November 2024; col. 66WH.]”
Excellent, and that is exactly what should be happening, but what mechanism is there to ensure that it does? While we absolutely should be calling on the largest companies named in various reports—companies such as Rolls-Royce, which clearly have every opportunity to ask the right questions—what about the smaller companies? Do they really have the opportunity to engage in that due diligence, which is vital but also very difficult, and yet another imposition on small and medium-sized companies?
Apart from human rights concerns, which we have already heard thoroughly outlined by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Garnier, there are significant security issues that are not necessarily talked about very frequently. What assessment are His Majesty’s Government making of Chinese interests in the Arctic and Antarctic? China sees itself as a near neighbour of the Arctic—one that clearly has business interests, in that, the more navigable the Arctic Sea region becomes, the greater the interest. President Xi suggested on meeting Prime Minister Starmer that we could co-operate and that there are areas of common interest in trade and investment. Where are those trade and investment interests coming from? Do they benefit the United Kingdom, or do they benefit only China?
There is a final question I want to ask, about higher education. I very briefly declare my other interest, as professor of European politics at Cambridge University. This is an issue that affects universities across this country and in the United States: the Chinese Students and Scholars Association. A quick internet search suggests that universities in the UK and the US have active Chinese Students and Scholars Associations. It is not entirely clear who funds them, but they appear to be intended partly to allow host communities to find out more about China and to allow Chinese students to have full feedback to China. Are His Majesty’s Government reassured that these are entirely neutral organisations simply serving the mutual benefit of the host university and the students; or are they also an opportunity for China to look for students to investigate, spy on—to use a word that is perhaps unfortunate—and feedback on fellow students, particularly students from Hong Kong, perhaps, who may feel vulnerable?
So how do we address it? Not by assuming that China believes in the international rules-based system but by understanding, ideologically and indeed theologically, where China is coming from. China simply does not see itself as one nation state among many; tianxia will not allow for that. A religiously illiterate approach that relies on western secular assumptions simply will not do, and we cannot counter a three millennia-old concept by appeal to a Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was drawn up only in 1948, deeply as I believe in it.
We must take a religiously informed approach to such a concept. In that light, I warmly welcome the announcement of the new freedom of religion or belief special envoy, the Member for North Northumberland, David Smith MP. He is very well equipped to take on this role, not only to advocate for marginalised communities but to help us understand these big-picture issues as they relate to increased authoritarianism and repression in the world today. I very much hope that, despite reports to the contrary, his office will be properly resourced, both financially and with staff, so that he can make the fullest impact possible in his role. There is no doubt that with Senator Rubio in post as Secretary of State—I note that he is currently under a Chinese travel ban—the incoming Trump Administration will foreground freedom of religion or belief in foreign policy. Mr Smith’s appointment gives us the perfect opportunity to make common cause with the United States on this issue, and we must grasp it.
Only a robust approach to China will do. It is not my place to suggest what that approach might be, though the implementation of the foreign influence registration scheme seems a good place to start, but we are not powerless in this. The UK and our allies are not without influence and we must use our seat on the Security Council. Despite what the Emperor said to Lord Macartney, China needs our trade—but we cannot trade at any price and must not leave this too late.
Do the Government believe that approach is correct?
Secondly was “Align”. The UK would deepen co-operation and alignment with key allies and partners to
“shape the broader strategic environment”.
The Government said that the UK aimed to work collectively with allies and partners to encourage China to contribute transparently and proportionately to financial stability and economic development around the world but, equally, to
“push back against behaviours that undermine international law, violate human rights, or seek to coerce or create dependencies”.
Again, do the Government agree with this approach?
Finally, there was “Engage”: the UK would engage directly with China through bilateral channels and international fora, including the UN Security Council, seeking
“to preserve and create space for open, constructive … and stable relations”
that reflect China’s global significance, which is an undeniable fact. The Government also stated that they believed in the potential benefits of positive trade and investment relationships with China, while safeguarding critical supply chains and national security. Does the Minister agree with that? If the answer to all three questions is yes, we need to move forward and start motoring.
In the multilateral sphere, what engagement is taking place on co-operation and conflict resolution? On the G20 meeting between the Prime Minister and President Xi, what has happened subsequently? On the Human Rights Council—I have raised this before—and the UN Third Committee, what has happened specifically in these areas on issues such as Xinjiang and the Uighur Muslims?
I know that during my over seven years as the UK Human Rights Minister, we led on bringing together an ever-growing number of nations to highlight the plight of the community and other minorities. What steps are the Government taking to build on the work of the previous Government in strengthening this coalition of almost 50 nations? I welcome the appointment of the new FoRB envoy; indeed, I am personally invested, as I was the first envoy and helped create the role. How is the international alliance, where my dear friend Fiona Bruce played such a pivotal role, being utilised in this respect?
Issues of contention and profound disagreements remain between the UK and China, some of which have been amplified in recent days and remain at the core of this relationship. Our colleagues, including the noble Lord, Lord Alton, and the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, remain under sanction by the Chinese authorities. Previous Prime Ministers had direct meetings with those sanctioned; I ask the Minister, through her good offices, to ensure that that continues.
I have already mentioned Hong Kong and the national security law, and Xinjiang, but, in the spirit of the season, if we are to move forward in turning a page in this relationship—perhaps even writing a new chapter—we need to bear in mind, as the right reverend Prelate reminded us, that China itself recognises the need for collective action. President Xi is focused on a revival of the teachings and philosophy of Confucius. It is to that philosophy I turn, in the spirit of building a bridge and moving forward, to lay the foundations for addressing serious human rights concerns and related freedoms. It was Confucius who said:
“To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness”.
I therefore reach out to the Chinese authorities—I trust that the Minister will agree with me. Let us move forward in that spirit, in this season, with some immediate practical steps: remove the sanctions from our colleagues in Parliament and beyond as a first step, and let us build a new dialogue; recognise that the major challenges of the world, be they a resolution to the war in Ukraine or peace in the Middle East, require collaboration; build on the experience of recent history and the fact that, when a pandemic engulfed the world, co-operation between nations was the bedrock of a new dawn after the tragedy that impacted us all; and release those who are held in detention for calling for freedom of expression. As my noble and learned friend Lord Garnier expressed so powerfully, Jimmy Lai is a man who has suffered for far too long and whose health is deteriorating. China should show compassion and clemency to him and his family, reflective of the season of good will but also of the central Confucian tenets of generosity and kindness—end his trial now and return our citizen. Finally, with the Sino-British treaty, China must revive freedom of expression and end acts of suppression.
China is important to the UK but the UK is equally important to China. We have differences and profound disagreements, with different governance systems, yet the links between our two nations are deep-rooted, in business and education, and from science and corporation to culture and cuisine, underpinned and defined by our people-to-people links. We are at a crossroads at this time. I have sought to outline some simple, practical steps that can be taken and which in my view may, I hope and pray, turn the trajectory of travel towards a more positive space.
In an Answer to a recent Written Question asking His Majesty’s Government what plans they had, if any, to suspend cargo routes from Xinjiang to UK airports, the noble Lord, Lord Hendy, replied:
“His Majesty’s Government have no plans to restrict cargo operations between Xinjiang and UK airports. The decision to operate particular routes is a commercial decision for airlines”.
His Majesty’s Government previously made commitments to tackle the scourge of modern slavery but, until this loophole is closed, the UK will effectively become the dumping ground for goods produced in such horrendous circumstances. Indeed, it may well be that already.
I therefore ask the Government to develop policies similar to those of the US and EU, to ensure that this debate leads beyond rhetoric and good intentions to the solid action which is so urgently needed.
Rather than go ever deeper into trading arrangements with China, with all their drawbacks, my view is that Britain should concentrate on the benefits from developing trade and economic ties with other trading partners—to make common cause, for instance, with the incoming US regime, as the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester suggested. I hope the noble Lord, Lord Leong, will forgive me for returning to this theme, but I recommend that we develop and are alert to what can be done as a leading global partner now that we are members of the CPTPP. I recommend that we are alert to how we can not only develop our own trade with this dynamic and ever-growing alliance but help our new partners in the CPTPP against predatory or hegemonic Chinese economic moves, given the wide area of influence that China already commands not just in the Indo-Pacific but with individual CPTPP countries. Already, 20% of Chinese goods are destined for CPTPP countries, and 50% of them are intermediate products. Of those countries, Malaysia, Vietnam and Mexico have the highest level of imports from China. In the UK, that figure is 13% of our imports, given the nature of our imports from China.
Will the UK Government commit to ensuring that they do everything possible to lead and strengthen the CPTPP as a free-trading bloc and an alternative to our trading partners, and indeed ourselves, being dependent on the Chinese economy? To return to a subject we have been debating in a Committee, will they ensure that no measure is taken under the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill that would undermine the UK’s ability both to exploit the opportunities of the CPTPP and to act as a beacon of global free trade with our new partners?
It is important to note that this afternoon the Prime Minister in the Liaison Committee referred to safe and legal routes for people to find asylum in the UK. He said that he was happy with what we had now with Afghanistan, Ukraine and Hong Kong. I have a direct question to the Minister: surely we also want to provide safe and legal routes for people from other parts of China who might be seeking asylum in the UK to be able to come here. Hong Kong is enormously important, but it should not just be Hong Kong.
My second point is that the noble Lord’s Motion refers to China’s actions and government policy towards China. That may have been what the Table Office was happy to have, but I urge all noble Lords not to regard China as a single entity. China is not the Chinese regime. It is really important that we do not make ahistorical, orientalising assumptions about China as some unchanging, monolithic entity. I note that Human Rights Watch, for example, has a whole series of reports about how there have been protests within China, with terribly brave actions by people within China at great risk to themselves. Let us not talk about China but about the Chinese regime, and acknowledge that there are Chinese people, not just within the parts of China that we have identified but in other parts as well, who are taking action. I note that there are really brave feminist LGBTIQA+ activists in China who have paid a hideous price for taking actions in those areas.
Finally, I will change tone. Given that this is the final Green speech of the year, I offer thanks particularly to the staff who keep us going through these long and strange hours in which we work. I wish them and all noble Lords a merry Christmas and a happy new year.