Full debate:
Lord Alton of Liverpool to move 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. (Balloted debate)
Lord Alton of Liverpool
House of Lords
19th December 2024
Lord Alton’s opening remarks:
In opening this last debate of the year – and 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 – may I begin by thanking everyone who will speak along with the House of Library for its excellent Briefing Note and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China for its critical global role in and for its support and assistance. Today has symbolic significance because 40 years ago today the British-Sino Treaty was signed by Margaret Thatcher and Zhao Ziyang.
I declare interests as an officer of the All Party Groups on Hong Kong, the Uyghurs and Freedom of Religion or Belief and as a Patron of Hong Kong Watch.
ML – China’s human rights violations and the growing security challenges posed by Beijing’s international posture are well documented and raise profound questions 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, the Intelligence and Security Committee says the UFWD has penetrated “every sector of the United Kingdom economy.”
MI5’s head, Ken McCallum, says infiltration is on an “epic scale.” Extraordinary, in those circumstances for the Prime Minister to be pressing for closer ties with the Chinese Communist Party regime and to say we should no longer describe them as a threat.
This may not be Maclean and Burgess but it involves manipulation and entrapment, influencing and cyber attacks, intimidation, threats and transnational repression. Not long ago the Foreign Secretary wanted them prosecuted for genocide.
Beginning with 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 subsequently seen every vestige of democracy dismantled.
The consequences are stark: over 1,200 political prisoners languish in jails, including prominent figures like British citizen Jimmy Lai. Exiled legislators such as Nathan Law face 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 to non-Hong Kong residents, threatening critics abroad with extradition.
Recall the attack on protestors outside the Manchester consulate which the Foreign Affairs Select Committee described as “a brazen violation of diplomatic norms.”
I recently wrote to the Security Minister to request a dedicated email address be set up so that victims of CCP overseas intimidation could guarantee getting through to someone adequately trained in this very specialised crime.
Perhaps the Minister could say when a response will be forthcoming and also say a word to those UK Hong Kongers still denied access to Mandatory Provident Funds – an estimated £3 billion. What progress has the Government made in securing the release of this money and what does she have to say about the role of HSBC and Standard Charter.
Did Minister West raise this during her recent visit and, if so, what response did she receive?
ML, I take this opportunity to raise again the case of Jimmy Lai, as Lord Garnier and other noble lords will also do.
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.
For a British national who has never held a Chinese passport, to be held in solitary confinement, with no consular access, denied access to the sacraments, dragged out to court to respond to an entirely fabricated narrative is simply outrageous and makes a mockery of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Would the Minister support the request by British nationals cited in the case to be to be heard in the Hong Kong court?
Would she place on record her view of the absurdity of this show trial; the spurious charade of dragging foreign legislators into it?
Band will she roundly condemn the recent jailing of 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders- including Joshua Wong and Benny Tai – sentenced to years in jail for so called subversion.–
Which brings me to the atrocities in Xinjiang and Tibet.
In Tibet, the CCP continues its campaign of cultural erasure. There are systematic efforts to suppress Tibetan language, dismantle monasteries, and impose Sinicization 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 – is mirrored by persecution of religious believers like Zhang Zhan, the young woman journalist jailed in Wuhan for seeking the truth about the origins of covid; or atrocities against Falun Gong practitioners and industrial scale repression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
Over one million have been detained in camps, subjected to forced labour, indoctrination, and even sterilization. The United Nations Human Rights Office has described potential crimes against humanity while the House of Commons, together 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 births of Uyghurs through forced sterilisation.
Canada has just sanctioned Chen Quanguo and Erkin Tuniyaz – two key officials responsible for Xinjiang atrocities. The UK failed to do so in 2021 – Will we do so now?
And what about Uyghur forced labour embedded in global supply chains ? The House will have seen reports by the Financial Times and BBC Panorama.
I have been raising this during the proceedings on the Energy Bill and know that Lady Kennedy will have more to say today but I name again Canadian Solar, who have been a huge beneficiary and ask how precisely does the government intend to root out slavery in the renewable industry? Will the Minister will 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 is this commitment going to be honoured?
What are we doing to prioritize supply chain resilience by diversifying imports and, supporting domestic industries?
In the light of breaches of the Modern Slavery Act and Proceeds of Crime Act I am glad 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 the Minister 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 threat to our economy and our security, undercutting resilience, deepening dependency – a point often made by Lord Blencathra and Lord Purvis.
Which leads to Taiwan and the South China Sea
In May, with Baroness D’Souza and Lord Rogan we 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 Chinese 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 Economics report estimated that a war over Taiwan could shave $10 trillion from the global economy. In terms of damage to the economy a war in Taiwan would be at least five times worse than even Ukraine has been.
As Taiwan produces over 60% of the world’s semiconductors and 90% of advanced chips, the disruption to supply chains would be unparalleled.
ML, without these chips, nothing works.
Our critical infrastructure depends upon them.
The devices in our pockets can’t run without them.
Has the government assessed the UK’s economic exposure to various scenarios in the Taiwan Strait? Will that be part of their China Audit?
It makes no sense to be increasing our exposure to China – increasing our dependence – especially when we are on the cusp of a Trump administration which will deepen further the Biden Administration’s strong position on China.
Our headaches in the South China Sea don’t end there.
With China’s militarization of artificial islands, in defiance of the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, undermining international maritime law, we must 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 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 China has given 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 China provides over 60% of the components being used to prosecute Putin’s illegal war. That’s 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 their favour.
ML, 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 Minister, 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 Minister will promise a full written reply.
What is clear enough is that this is a hostile state.
It is that it is ludicrous and worse to try and justify deepening business links – pouring public and private money into China’s coffers on – while they are making possible an illegal war in Europe.
And this is also an enemy within.
Chinese companies dominate critical infrastructure sectors, from energy to technology – 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 the 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.
Can the Minister tell us what we are doping to assist Universities become less reliant on CCP money and what did we do to challenge UCL when Professor Michelle Shipworth was removed from teaching a course on China , saying it conflicted with the university’s “commercial interests” of attracting Chinese students. Prof Shipworth had highlighted data from the Global Slavery Index suggesting China had the second highest prevalence of modern slavery in the world.
Such examples and this debate underlines what our International Relations and Defence Committee said was the need for a coherent strategy, filling what we referred to as a “a strategic void.”
How ill the China Audit attempt to fill that void and how will it connect to Lord Robertson’s Strategic Defence Review?
To conclude:
A coherent strategic response to the multifaceted challenges posed by China
· would strengthen alliances with regional partners and enhance NATO’s role in addressing China’s global ambitions.
· would Protect National Security, Reduce Economic Dependencies: and Expose Authoritarian Collaboration.
· And would champion Human Rights. with the UK leading international efforts to hold the CCP accountable for its abuses in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, and elsewhere. This includes robust Magnitsky-style sanctions and advocating for independent investigations under international law.
We ought not to be persuaded by those who seek to talk down Britain, 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.
Britain has a proud tradition of standing up to tyranny.
As we face this authoritarian threat, let us be unwavering in our resolve.
