Several British parliamentarians have reacted with dismay this morning after the emergence of a Politico report alleging that the prime minister plans to restart high-level UK-China trade talks.
The talks have been on hold since 2018.
Iain Duncan Smith, who served as leader of the Conservative party between 2001 and 2003 said via Twitter: “If this government decides that they are going to kowtow to China by going over there and begging them to trade I have to tell you that they can think again.”
“I make no bones about this: I will not let it rest if we start now, amid all the evidence of genocide, brutality, crackdowns on peaceful protesters,” he went on.
Five Conservative MPs were slammed with retaliatory sanctions by the Chinese government last year, including Sir Iain, Nusrat Ghani and Tim Loughton, all members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).
Fellow IPAC members, peers Baroness Kennedy and Lord Alton were also sanctioned, along with Tom Tugendhat and Neil O’Brien who lead the China Research Group.
Boris Johnson previously said that those sanctioned are “shining a light” on “gross human rights violations”.
Liberal Democrat Trade Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said in response to the alleged plans to relaunch trade talks: “How can the Conservative Government plan to strike a trade deal with China given the genocide against the Uyghurs?
“Conservative Ministers are sending a dangerous signal to Beijing that they can get away with whatever they want.
“Rather than hold new trade talks with China, the UK must ban imports from Xinjiang, and recognise the genocide taking place there. We must not stay silent.”
Last April the House of Commons declared that genocide is taking place against Uyghurs and others in north-west China.
Estimates regarding the number of Uyghur Muslims currently held in concentration camps is between one and three million.
