Labour calls for sanctions on Chinese officials over Uighur repression

The government should freeze the assets of Chinese officials over the persecution of the Uighur people, Labour has said.

The shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, argued that new Magnitsky-style legislation should be introduced by the government and used against any officials involved in human rights abuses.

“There’s one thing that the government could do in relation to helping the Uighur people at the moment and that is to freeze the assets of any of the Chinese officials involved in those human rights abuses over in China,” she told Sky News.

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“We’ve got new legislation now; we’ve been pushing the government to do that for two years. The UK should not be a haven for people who abuse human rights overseas.”

But her government counterpart, Dominic Raab, said sanctions could not just be applied “willy-nilly” and that an evidence base had to be built up to identify those responsible.

On 6 July, the government announced its first wave of asset freezes under the new legislation, targeting 25 Russian nationals, 20 Saudi nationals, two Burmese military generals and two organisations with links to North Korean forced labour camps.

However, Chinese officials were notable by their absence from the list, despite growing concerns about repression by authorities in Xinjiang. Downing Street also has concerns about China’s involvement in UK infrastructure, such as its nascent 5G telecommunications network.

Human rights groups say recent Chinese policy in the long-running conflict with the Muslim minority in Xinjiang has involved mass surveillance and the incarceration without trial of over one million people in “re-education camps”.

There are reports that the camps are being used for forced labour. China says its policies are in response to political extremism and the threat of terrorism.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael, said: “The images we have seen in recent days are harrowing and inhuman. The government has a duty to take a lead and do all we can to save the Uighur people.

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“We must be clear what is happening here. The Chinese government is engineering a genocide. The foreign secretary must come before MPs before the recess and set out what urgent actions the government will take, both on an international level and unilaterally.”

Speaking on the same programme as Ms Nandy, Mr Raab said of the UK’s relationship with China: “I think we need to be very careful in our dealings. On the one hand we want a positive relationship with China – there are all sorts of areas and scope for cooperation, not least on investment and trade and things like that, but also on climate change.

“Equally, with various efforts – cyberattacks, the resilience of our vital interests like 5G – and when it comes to standing up for our values as we’ve done very clearly on Hong Kong ... we will always make clear our position on those key interests and values to China. That’s the calibrated approach we’ll take.”

Mr Raab said “there won’t be business as usual” and the UK would be “clear-eyed” in its dealings.

He told the BBC that it was clear there were ”gross, egregious human rights abuses” being perpetrated against the Uighur people.

“We are working with our international partners on this. It is deeply, deeply troubling,” he said.

“The reports of the human aspect of it – from forced sterilisation to the education camps – are reminiscent of something we have not seen for a long, long time.

“This is from a leading member of the international community that wants to be taken seriously and in fact who we want a positive relationship with. But we cannot see behaviour like that and not call it out.”

On the issue of sanctions, he said: “It’s not quite right as Lisa Nandy suggested that you can just willy-nilly decide to sanction X or Y. You have to, as we have done with Magnitsky, with the Rohingya, with North Korea, build up an evidence base and that takes a long time to do because you have to identify accurately and responsibly those involved.”

Mr Raab said he would be making a Commons statement on Monday in relation to what further measures the UK would take following China’s imposition of a new national security law in Hong Kong.

China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, said any measures to sanction officials would be met with a response.

“We never believe in unilateral sanctions. We believe the UN is the authority, has the authority to impose sanctions. If the UK government goes that far to impose sanctions on any individuals in China, China will certainly make a resolute response to it,” he told the BBC.

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AFP via Getty 29/50 20 June 2020 National Guards form a line in front of "Black Lives Matter" protestors in Tulsa, Oklahoma where Donald Trump was holding a campaign rally AFP via Getty 30/50 19 June 2020 Nurses, doctors, midwives and health care workers attend the fourth Zumba dance session organised by the Nursing Council of Kenya at Kenyatta stadium where screening booths and an isolation field hospital have been installed. The dance sessions have been organised to re-energise and uplift health care providers sprits during this pandemic AFP via Getty 31/50 18 June 2020 Alpha jets from the French Air Force Patrouille de France and the Royal Air Force Red Arrows perform a flypast over the statue of Charles de Gaulle on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris to celebrate the 80th anniversary of wartime leader's appeal to the French people to resist the Nazi occupation, broadcast from London Reuters 32/50 17 June 2020 Activists from the Extinction Rebellion movement block a street outside the German Automobile industry association during a protest in Berlin AFP via Getty 33/50 16 June 2020 Barbers wearing protective suits and face masks inside a salon in Dhaka, Bangladesh Reuters 34/50 15 June 2020 Siegfried White raises his hand as he protests outside a burned Wendy's restaurant on the third day following Rayshard Brooks death. The black man was shot by police in the car park in Atlanta. The mayor ordered immediate police reforms on Monday after the fatal shooting by a white officer AFP via Getty 35/50 14 June 2020 People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest march in central Tokyo AFP via Getty 36/50 13 June 2020 Protesters raise their fists during a demonstration against police brutality and racism in Paris, France. The march was organised by supporters of Assa Traore, whose brother Adama died in police custody in 2016, in circumstances that remain unclear EPA 37/50 12 June 2020 A pro-democracy supporter shouts at riot police during an anti-national security law rally in Mongkok district in Hong Kong, China. Protesters heeded online calls to gather as the city marks the one-year anniversary of the major clashes between police and pro-democracy demonstrators over the controversial extradition bill Getty 38/50 11 June 2020 A section of the River Spree next to the Reichstag building coloured green by activists from "Extinction Rebellion" to protest the German government's coal policies in Berlin AFP via Getty 39/50 10 June 2020 A woman poses in front of a decapitated statue of Christopher Columbus at Christopher Columbus Park in Boston Massachusetts. The statue's head, damaged overnight, was recovered by the Boston Police Department, as a movement to remove statues commemorating slavers and colonisers continues to sweep across the US AFP via Getty 40/50 9 June 2020 Ivy McGregor, left, reads a resolution during the funeral for George Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston. George Floyd is being laid to rest in his hometown, the culmination of a long farewell to the 46-year-old African American whose death in custody ignited global protests against police brutality and racism AFP via Getty 41/50 8 June 2020 People raise their fist and stand on their knees as they demonstrate in Nantes, during a Black Lives Matter protest AFP via Getty 42/50 7 June 2020 A woman looks on during a protest against the killing of George Floyd in Osaka city, western Japan EPA 43/50 6 June 2020 Demonstrator raise their fists at the Lincoln Memorial during a protest against police brutality and racism in Washington, DC. Demonstrations are being held across the US following the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, while being arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota AFP via Getty 44/50 5 June 2020 A handout photo made available by 2020 Planet Labs shows an aerial view of the large diesel spill in the Ambarnaya River outside Norilsk in the Arctic. Russia has managed to contain a massive diesel spill into a river in the Arctic, a spokeswoman for the emergencies ministry told AFP. Environmentalists said the oil spill, which took place last May 29, was the worst such accident ever in the Arctic region Planet Labs Inc./AFP via Getty 45/50 4 June 2020 Activists hold a candlelit remembrance outside Victoria Park in Hong Kong, after the annual vigil, that traditionally takes place in the park to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, was banned on public health grounds because coronavirus AFP via Getty 46/50 3 June 2020 A visitor walks in Odaiba as the sun sets in Tokyo AP 47/50 2 June 2020 Activists of the Socialist Unity Centre of India shout slogans in Ahmedabad in solidarity with protests against the recent killing of George Floyd AP 48/50 1 June 2020 Activists take part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Zurich after the recent death of George Floyd EPA 49/50 31 May 2020 A black man and a white woman hold their hands up in front of police officers in downtown Long Beach during a protest against the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while being arrested and pinned to the ground by the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Protests sweeping the United States over the death of George Floyd reverberated on the other side of the globe when thousands marched in solidarity on the streets of New Zealand AFP via Getty 50/50 30 May 2020 Police officers are seen amid tear gas as protesters continue to rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota Reuters

“You’ve seen what happened between China and the US – they sanction Chinese officials, we sanction their senators. I do not want to see this tit-for-tat in UK relations. I think the UK should have its own independent foreign policy rather than the dance to the tune of Americans like what happened to Huawei.”

On the issue of Uighur persecution, the ambassador told the broadcaster: “The so-called western intelligence agencies keep making up this false accusation against China, that 1 million Uighurs have been persecuted. You know how many population Xinjiang has? Forty years ago it was four or five million. Now its 11 million people – and people say we impose ethnic cleansing, but the population had doubled in 40 years.

Responding to questions about forced sterilisation, he said: “I can easily refute this accusation. There’s some small group of anti-China elements working against the interests of China, but the majority of people in Xinjiang are happy with what is going on. In the past three years, there’s been not a single terrorist attack in Xinjiang.

“People can enjoy a harmonious life. Uighur people enjoy peaceful, harmonious coexistence with other ethnic groups of people. The Uighur people is just one small portion of the Chinese population even among the Muslims – but the majority of them are living happily and peacefully with other ethnic [groups]. The success of China is we have a very successful ethnic policy; we treat every ethnic group as an equal.”

Speaking on other issues, Ms Nandy said her party had “got it wrong” in its earlier response to concerns about the Russian government.

“By prevaricating about issues like [the poisoning in] Salisbury, we let the Tories off the hook. I strongly believe that that has to change and that we have to have a much more strategic approach to Russia,” she said.