Contributed an essay to an excellent collection of essays published by CIVITAS and launched on October 14th 2024 at the UK Parliament.
Excerpts from: How do we balance threats to human rights with our
relationship with China? Trading with a forced labour superpower
Civitas: Living with the Dragon: What does a coherent UK policy towards China look like?
Lord Alton
Where does our desire for human rights sit within the UK relationship with China?
There is nothing enormously fantastical about the real-time dangers posed by the dragon in the Middle
Kingdom of China.
China has made no secret of its desire to create an entirely new world order, distinct
from the Western rules-based liberal international order. Despite Chinese President Xi Jinping’s carefully
choreographed public relations meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden in 2022 and 2023, he is determined
to create the circumstances in which he can assert the hegemony of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).255
He has positioned himself at the head of an axis – where he is accompanied by President Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The threat is not uniquely from this new axis alone. We too are the problem. Too often in the West, we seem to have an intrinsic challenge in our lack of resilience and even belief in our civilizational values. We too often forget in Britain who we are and what made us who we are.
But do not let that deflect from the very real problems with China’s human rights record and the challenges
these pose to our relationship. When we are presented with evidence of a trading partner involved in the
destruction of a people’s identity, or involved in mass surveillance, not least in Xinjiang, which has had over one million Uighur Muslims interned in camps for use as forced labour, what do we do? What do we say to those involved in forced labour and enforced slavery, or involved in the uprooting of people and the destruction of communities?
We now know from our recent experience with Hong Kong that the Chinese leadership has destroyed ‘one
country, two systems’ and introduced ‘national security’ laws that have strangled democracy, with masses of
pro-democracy activists, legislators, journalists and others incarcerated. The heroic stand of the jailed British
citizen Jimmy Lai, puts him on a par with Tank Man.
Meanwhile, in Britain, we seem to sit in a holding pattern of incoherent strategy, moral ambiguity and tacit
consent for a changing political order in which President Xi tightens his internal grip on power, consolidates his embrace over international institutions – and undermines the West’s ability or willingness to uphold the rules based order.
The CCP wants hegemony for its ideology – wholly antithetical to the values on which liberal
democracies are founded.
If we cast our minds back to our post-war human rights commitments and read the 30 Articles of the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and try to find provisions that China has not breached, it is very clear that CCP has unleashed a crackdown on civil society, lawyers, bloggers, journalists and dissidents across China. Article 19 of the UDHR – the right to seek information and express opinions – is breached every single day. All the while, religious persecution remains a hallmark of the CCP. We only need to look to the predicament of Tibet’s Buddhists, Xinjiang’s Uyghur Muslims, Chinese Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, or the arrest of the venerable Cardinal Joseph Zen.
As we continue to raise these concerns, our trading relationship with China prevails relatively unscathed.
In 2022 speaking at the Washington Summit I said that “religious persecution is a hallmark of the CCP. Think of Tibet’s Buddhists; Xinjiang’s Uyghur Muslims; Chinese Christians, and Falun Gong practitioners. Think of the arrest of the venerable Cardinal Joseph Zen.That the CCP regime is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council is a sick joke. Every minute of every day the CCP breaks Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which guarantees freedom of religion or belief for every citizen, everywhere.”
(See full text: www.davidalton.net/2022/06/30/speaking-at-thewashington-
summit-lord-alton-said-that-religious-persecution-is-a-hallmark-of-the-ccp-think-of-tibets-buddhists-xinjiangs-uyghur-muslims-chinese-christia ) And in urging the UK Government To Call Out China In The UN Human Rights Council For Violations of Human Rights In Xinjiang And Hong Kong, I asked Ministers To Name Which of The 30 Articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights China is not in breach – and whether we have called out China in the UN Human Rights Council. Available at: www.davidalton.net/2022/04/27/uk-government-urged-today-to-call-out-china-in-the-un-human-rightscouncil-for-violations-of-human-rights-in-xinjiang-and-hong-kong-ministers-asked-to-name-which-of-the-30-articles-in-the-universal (Accessed: 5 March 2024).
What to do with our ‘Buy China’ policy?
Last year, the UK Intelligence and Security Committee of parliament published a damning report on China. The report says that China has penetrated ‘every sector’ of the UK’s economy, while recognising that Falun Gong is perceived by the CCP as one of the greatest domestic threats to its rule.
Far too many institutions and corporations overlook the origins of its capital or the use of slave labour in places such as Xinjiang province in China. The old but very popular counterargument that trade brings liberal democracy now haunts us – and could not be said to be true in China, Saudi Arabia or Iran.
During the pandemic, a vast amount of taxpayers’ money was paid to firms in the People’s Republic of China for producing personal protective equipment (PPE). That same amount of money could have been used to improve quality of life, save lives and reduce our dependency on the Chinese Communist Party. It could have been used to enhance the national resilience of this country, not least if we face further national emergencies, such as another pandemic.
We know that around one in five cotton garments sold globally contain cotton or yarn from Xinjiang,264 and the region also manufactures a significant amount of the world’s polysilicon to make solar panels.265 Given my past attempt to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act’s provisions on supply-chain transparency, a subject of a Private Member’s Bill that I introduced in the House of Lords, it becomes clear that big vested interests have done all in their power behind the scenes to prevent the promises of past ministers from being acted on. We should ensure we have proper integrity in our procurement policies; protecting the British state from the taint of association with slave labour – and better still, create a framework and timescale for taking action.
It took a tough parliamentary campaign to stop vested interests having too great an influence on the
government when giving China control of 5G telecommunications. It then took another campaign to get Chinese surveillance cameras out of deeply sensitive sites, including military sites. The next campaign is already centring on Chinese-made electric cars – or even simply Chinese-made cellular modules that are components in non- Chinese-made cars and other electronic equipment – which could be used for surveillance. The lack of action to identify and protect UK citizens and assets from known threats represents a serious failure.
Instead of a confusing approach in dealing with China, we need to make it clear that it is perfectly possible
to admire the people, culture and civilization of China while opposing the brutal CCP dictatorship that rules
China, currently led by Xi Jinping. China represents an epoch-defining threat and systemic challenge to liberal democracies like the UK and we have been asleep at the wheel.
So, what can the British authorities and citizens do?
There are a number of steps ministers can take to alleviate and defend our human rights position while
maintaining trade links:
- Government requires a cross-departmental strategy to remove China-made surveillance cameras not only
from government departments but from the UK procurement supply chains as a whole. - There must also be a complete review of our policy towards slave labour states.
- That the Chinese Communist Party thinks the Commonwealth is worth infiltrating and subverting should be regarded as a badge of honour, a reason for strengthening and broadening its reach. It has been disappointing that the previous British governments have been so indifferent to the Commonwealth’s potential. Although King Charles, as head of the Commonwealth, is not hereditary and is mainly symbolic, the role provides him with an amazing reach into a network of 56 Commonwealth countries. They have a combined population of more than 2.5 billion people.
- By learning from US bipartisan legislation, we should be producing our own watertight legislation, creating a rebuttable presumption that all goods sourced from Xinjiang are unethically produced, unless clear and persuasive evidence could be provided to the contrary. This is another Five Eyes country, and one of our closest allies.
- When it comes to challenging authoritarianism and scrapping companies and actors that do their bidding from our procurement supply chain, we are greatly behind our Five Eyes partners, like Australia and the bipartisan approach evidenced very early on in the United States. We must better co-ordinate procurement policies with our allies.
- Together, with our partners, we need to simultaneously stay the course in Ukraine, the Middle East and the Far East. We can do this through the strengthening of hard power alliances – through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and AUKUS. Equally, together we can achieve this through smart power, in networks like the Commonwealth, our development programmes and through the open promotion of our shared values with like-minded nations.
- As for the United Nations, if it is to survive and not become part of this new world order, it must be fundamentally reformed. Those who believe in it must lead by example and be relentless in exposing its subversion and corruption. Its principal mission must be to protect the sovereignty of all nations, from the Levant to the Horn of Africa, from Ukraine to Myanmar, from Taiwan to the Korean Peninsula, and wherever people are oppressed or at risk, stand with them and do more than make weak tea and offer statements of concern.
- Our policy must challenge the dependency we have developed on a troubling regime. The more dependent we become on firms whose ties with the Chinese state extend as far as the construction of Xinjiang’s surveillance technology, the harder it becomes to pursue a genuinely credible stance. The deeper our dependency becomes, the harder it is to stand for our values.
- Steps should be taken to ensure that high-risk vendors credibly accused of egregious abuses of human
rights, such as complicity in the modern slavery of Turkic Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, will be excluded from being beneficiaries.Profiteering on the labour of enslaved Uighurs should either be a criminal offence under British law or not. - Fundamentally, procurement should strengthen national resilience. It should reduce dependency on states which pose a risk to our national security. It should protect British manufacturing from competitors that use slave labour, or grossly exploited labour. Our policy must send a signal to the private sector that it is simply unethical to buy cheap goods from states where citizens are being subjected to appalling inhumanity and abuse of human rights.
- What if, today, all retailers were required to label goods from China as ‘made in a state credibly accused of slave labour’? Consumers, in a powerful exercise of democratic capitalism, could then make informed choices about whether they want to use their purchasing power to prop up any regime responsible for cruelty.
- We know that many Gen Z consumers are willing to pay more for products that are environmentally
sustainable. But, if we are to take credible moral positions, would Gen Z and the rest of us be willing to
pay more for products that are not produced by forced labour? Would this generation be willing to boycott products made in countries credibly accused of human trafficking? If we all knew of the horrific origins of many of the products we purchase, the answer would be a resounding yes. - Some will of course object to this truth-through-labelling approach as simplistic or point out that governments have already enacted bills like the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in the United Kingdom and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act 2021 in the United States. These are important steps, but we also need consumers and businesses to recognise and make the sacrifice of passing over products made in places like Xinjiang Province. Many of the goods we order from retailers or buy in our local stores are produced by slave labour.
- By ensuring government legislates to require internet retailers to declare countries of origin of items to
purchasers in advance of their sale, we can enable consumers to decide for themselves if they want to buy products made in a state accused of using slave labour. - ===
- Footnotes: See The threat from China is no fairytale. Available at: www.gisreportsonline.com/r/threat-from-china (Accessed: 6 March 2024).260 Alton, D. (2023) Speech Delivered by David Alton (Lord Alton of Liverpool) at Parliamentary Event in Committee Room G on July 17th 2023: Forced Organ
Harvesting and Falun Gong. Available at: www.davidalton.net/2023/07/17/speech-delivered-at-parliamentary-event-in-committee-room-g-on-july-17th-2023-
forced-organ-harvesting-and-falun-gong-this-really-is-a-major-problem-the-next-big-human-rights-scandal-in-china-afte (Accessed: 5 March 2024).
261 Alton, D. (2023) Prospects for democratic capitalism. Available at: www.gisreportsonline.com/r/democratic-capitalism (Accessed: 6 March 2024).
262 Alton, D. (2023) Genocide and the fight for humanity. Available at: www.gisreportsonline.com/r/fight-for-humanity (Accessed: 6 March 2024).
263 Alton, D. (2022) Modern Slavery Amendment Incorporated Into The Health Bill to Prevent NHS Procurement Of Goods Tainted By Modern Slavery – like
those produced by forced labour of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Available at: www.davidalton.net/2022/04/26/modern-slavery-amendment-incorporatedinto-
the-health-bill-to-prevent-nhs-procurement-of-goods-tainted-by-modern-slavery-like-those-produced-by-forced-labour-of-uyghur-muslims-in-xinjiang
(Accessed: 5 March 2024).
264 Kelly, A. (2020) ‘Virtually entire’ fashion industry complicit in Uighur forced labour, say rights groups’, The Guardian, 23 July. Available at: theguardian.com/
global-development/2020/jul/23/virtually-entire-fashion-industry-complicit-in-uighur-forced-labour-say-rights-groups-china (Accessed: 2 September 2024).
265 BBC News (2021) China uses Uyghur forced labour to make solar panels, says report. Available at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-57124636
(Accessed: 2 September 2024). And U.S. Department of Labor. Traced to Forced Labor: Solar Supply Chains Dependent on Polysilicon from Xinjiang.
Available at: www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/images/storyboards/solar/Solar.pdf (Accessed: 2 September 2024).
266 Alton, D. (2022) Why the NHS needs to stop buying products made by Uyghur slave labour in the CCP’s Genocide State of Xinjiang. Available at: www.
davidalton.net/2022/02/01/why-the-nhs-needs-to-stop-buying-products-made-by-uyghur-slave-labour-in-the-ccps-genocide-state-of-xinjiang (Accessed: 5 - Alton, D. (2022) Procurement Bill – procurement of goods made in states credibly accused of genocide and states using slave labour. Available at: www.davidalton.net/2022/05/26/procurement-bill-procurement-of-goods-made-in-states-credibly-accused-of-genocide-and-states-using-slave-labour (Accessed:5 March 2024).269 Alton, D. (2022) Today’s Debate on NHS Procurement From States Accused of Slave Labour. Amendment passed. Content 177 Not Content 135 Majority
- Available at: www.davidalton.net/2022/04/05/todays-debate-on-nhs-procurement-from-states-accused-of-slave-labour-amendment-passed-content-177-not-content-135-majority-42 (Accessed: 6 March 2024).270 Alton, D. (2023) The challenges facing King Charles III. Available at: www.gisreportsonline.com/r/king-charles-challenges (Accessed: 6 March 2024).271 Alton, D. (2022) Why the NHS needs to stop buying products made by Uyghur slave labour in the CCP’s Genocide State of Xinjiang. Available at: www.davidalton.net/2022/02/01/why-the-nhs-needs-to-stop-buying-products-made-by-uyghur-slave-labour-in-the-ccps-genocide-state-of-xinjiang (Accessed: 5March 2024).272 Alton, D. (2022) Procurement Bill – procurement of goods made in states credibly accused of genocide and states using slave labour. Available at: www.davidalton.net/2022/05/26/procurement-bill-procurement-of-goods-made-in-states-credibly-accused-of-genocide-and-states-using-slave-labour (Accessed:5 March 2024).273 Alton, D. (2024) The threat from China is no fairy tale. Available at: www.gisreportsonline.com/r/threat-from-china (Accessed: 6 March 2024).
- Alton, D. (2020) Huawei’s Human Rights Record Has Been Shamefully Ignored. Available at: thediplomat.com/2020/02/huaweis-human-rights-record-has been-shamefully-ignored (Accessed: 6 March 2024).275 Alton, D. (2020) House of Lords Debate at the Committee Stage of the Telecommunications Bill. Peers call for Huawei and other international companies to demonstrate that they do not use Uighur slave labour in Xinjiang and a call for democracies to unite around a new Helsinki Process to hold the Chinese Communist Party to account for violations of human rights: Helsinki with Chinese Characteristics. Available at: www.davidalton.net/2020/05/19/house-oflords-debate-at-the-committee-stage-of-the-telecommunications-bill-peers-call-for-huawei-and-other-international-companies-to-demonstrate-that-they-donot-use-uighur-slave-labour-in-xinjiang (Accessed: 5 March 2024).
- Alton, D. (2020) House of Lords Debate at the Committee Stage of the Telecommunications Bill. Peers call for Huawei and other international companies to demonstrate that they do not use Uighur slave labour in Xinjiang and a call for democracies to unite around a new Helsinki Process to hold the Chinese Communist Party to account for violations of human rights: Helsinki with Chinese Characteristics. Available at: www.davidalton.net/2020/05/19/house-oflords-debate-at-the-committee-stage-of-the-telecommunications-bill-peers-call-for-huawei-and-other-international-companies-to-demonstrate-that-they-donot-use-uighur-slave-labour-in-xinjiang (Accessed: 5 March 2024).
- Alton, D. (2022) Procurement Bill – procurement of goods made in states credibly accused of genocide and states using slave labour. Available at: www.davidalton.net/2022/05/26/procurement-bill-procurement-of-goods-made-in-states-credibly-accused-of-genocide-and-states-using-slave-labour (Accessed:5 March 2024)
- Alton, D. (2023) Article in America Magazine: Saying no to slave labour: Younger consumers are demanding the truth – and in the DRC children and slavelabour are used in mines to provide the CCP with cobalt. Available at: www.davidalton.net/2023/12/02/article-in-america-magazine-saying-no-to-slave-labour-younger-consumers-are-demanding-the-truth-and-in-the-drc-children-and-slave-labour-are-used-in-mines-to-provide-the-ccp-with-cobalt (Accessed: 5March 2024).279 Alton, D. (2022) . Available at: www.davidalton.net/2022/03/31/government-should-legislated-to-require-internet-retailers-to-declare-countries-of-origin-of-items-to-purchasers-in-advance-of-their-salethen-consumers-can-decide-if-they-want-to-buy-products-made (Accessed: 5 March 2024).
