the times | Tuesday July 21 2020 2GM 7News
It is one of the most powerful groupings
of Tory MPs and has secured two policy
reversals in a few weeks, first on Hua-
wei and now on Britain’s extradition
treaty with Hong Kong. But like the
European Research Group (ERG) of
hardline Brexiteers at the height of its
success, it is riven by division and in-
fighting, The Times has learnt.
The Conservative Party’s China
hawks are divided more over politics
and personality than policy, it is under-
stood. They are a mixed bag, populated
on the one hand with senior figures
such as Sir Iain Duncan Smith and
David Davis, and on the other with
ambitious younger moderates such as
Tom Tugendhat and Tobias Ellwood.
They have formed distinct factions
according to their politics, with Mr
Tugendhat leading a new China Re-
search Group, modelled on the ERG,
which includes Damian Green,
Andrew Bowie and members of last
year’s intake such as Dehenna Davison
and Alicia Kearns.
Sir Iain is chairman of the Inter-
Parliamentary Alliance on China,
while a total of 59 Tory China hawks are
brought together in the so-called Hua-
wei Interest Group. This group signed a
letter to the prime minister calling for a
legally binding date to remove Huawei
from Britain’s 5G network.
One member of the group said it was
a sufficient vehicle for change and that
“another Conservative group isn’t
necessary”, accusing Mr Tugendhat of
“careerism”.
An MP said Brexit hardliners who
were exercised about China were in
search of a new “project”. “There are
some of the usual customers, the old
grandees if you like, who need a project
to keep busy and now that the ERG andTreatment of Uighurs ‘is
reminder of Nazi crimes’
Eleni CoureaThe Chinese government’s treatment
of the Uighurs bears “similarities” with
the atrocities committed by Nazi Ger-
many, the head of Britain’s main Jewish
body has warned.
In a letter to the Chinese ambassador
yesterday, Marie van der Zyl, president
of the Board of Deputies of British Jews,
wrote that “China has a choice between
great glory and eternal shame”.
She cited drone footage of Uighurs
being led, bound and blindfolded, on to
trains that are suspected to be carrying
them to so-called re-education camps
in the Xinjiang region.
When confronted with the video on
BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show on
Sunday Liu Xiaoming, the ambassador,
said: “Sometimes you have a transfer of
prisons and prisoners, in any country.”
There have been extensive testimo-
nies from survivors of the internment
camps who say they attempt to make
Uighur people, a Muslim minority that
lives primarily in the north of the
country, renounce their religion and
culture.
In her letter to the ambassador, Ms
Van der Zyl wrote: “Nobody could
watch the segment of The Andrew MarrShow on which you appeared yesterday
and fail to notice the similarities
between what is alleged to be happen-
ing in the People’s Republic of China
today and what happened in Nazi Ger-
many 75 years ago.
“People being forcibly loaded onto
trains; beards of religious men being
trimmed; women being sterilised; and
the grim spectre of concentration
camps.”
Ms Van der Zyl urged China to open
its doors to “a full and impartial inter-
national investigation” and end any
oppression of religious and ethnic
minorities. She wrote: “Germany has
rightly paid a heavy price for its perse-
cution of the Jewish people. Its historic
guilt rests heavily on it and, 75 years on,
its leaders and representatives con-
tinue to do all they can to make amends
for the sins of their forebears.”
Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary,
said yesterday that Beijing was guilty of
“gross and egregious” human rights
violations that were “reminiscent of
something not seen for a long time”.
Labour is calling for the government
to impose immediate sanctions on
individuals and organisations who are
associated with human rights abuses
against the Uighurs in China.said, ripping up an extradition treaty
is hardly a mark of progress. Mr
Carmichael went on to ask if Mr
Raab agreed we were now looking
at possible genocide with, Lord help
us, claims of shipments of human
hair from Xinjiang province. Several
MPs spoke of alleged state brutality
in Xinjiang province, as shown on
BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show
on Sunday when the Chinese
ambassador had an awkward time.
That ambassador is one of the
bubblier figures on the London
diplomatic circuit. To see him
wriggle like that was troubling, yet
oddly fascinating. Mr Raab told the
Commons that he himself had not
seen that video footage until the
Marr show. That surprised me.
A rare moment of levity came
when Mr Raab said China wanted to
crowbar some patsy to run the
World Intellectual Property
Organisation. This generated
laughter, either because MPs
thought Beijing was so incorrigible
or because they had not heard of the
organisation and were amused by
the sound of it. I don’t see why. Itsounds a perfect job for Chris
Grayling.
Lisa Nandy, the shadow foreign
secretary, scratched around for
points of disagreement with Mr
Raab. These are early days but Ms
Nandy, fiddling with her hair, does
not convey much weight. If anyone
put the brakes on Mr Raab it was a
couple of Tory backbenchers:
Andrew Mitchell (Sutton
Coldfield), arguing that on climate
change we had more in common
with China than with Donald
Trump, and Richard Graham
(Gloucester). The latter once did
diplomatic bit and bobs in China.
He spotted that we were still letting
our judiciary work in Hong Kong.
Was that a sign the joint
declaration could yet be saved? Mr
Raab, deadpan: “We are watching
very carefully.”
The judges in question include
our dear friend Lady Hale. What a
wonderful bargaining chip she
could become for croupier Raab.
Beijing may be so eager to get rid of
the old clucker, it might play nice if
we replace her with a sunnier soul.large, dangerous bet. It is the duty of
the croupier to acknowledge the
stake and proceed in a professional
manner, even while thinking
“jeepers, if that bastard wins, this
place is going to be bankrupt”.
He had begun by paying elaborate
compliments to China: its
“extraordinary transformation in
recent decades”, its “ancient
culture” and enormous economy.
When they mention “ancient
culture”, you know relations are
stinky. Britain, Mr Raab said,
recognised China’s “remarkable
success in raising millions of its own
people out of poverty”. What a pity
western governments
simultaneously did the very opposite
to their own populations. There was
“enormous scope for positive
engagement”, continued Raab. But:
gross human rights abuses, failure to
live by international obligations,
violation of the Hong Kong joint
declaration. The extradition treaty
was toast. Immediate and indefinite.
The House agreed, although as
Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dem,
Orkney & Shetland) sorrowfullyNews
Hong Kong tools of repression
China hawks split on
who gets any credit
Eleni Courea Political Reporter Brexit are done, they’ve migrated
across here,” they said.
A row is brewing over which faction
claims credit for the decision to shelve
Britain’s extradition treaty with Hong
Kong after Beijing passed a national
security law which jeopardises its inde-
pendence. The move came amid con-
cerns that Beijing could try to use
the treaty against Hong Kong pro-
democracy activists who have gone
overseas. The UK does not have an
extradition treaty with China.
Sir Iain, a former Tory leader, tabled
an amendment for the treaty to be torn
up this month, while the China Re-
search Group sent a letter to Mr Raab
calling for it to be suspended. Rather
than revel in their shared victory the
two sides are already squabbling over
who was responsible for it.
There is no sign yet of any significant
policy split among the China hawks,
but a group of 20 backbench MPs, the
majority of them Conservatives, are
due to see the US secretary of state
Mike Pompeo today before his meeting
with Boris Johnson. The group includes
Sir Iain, Mr Davis and Mr Green, but
not Mr Tugendhat.
As well as piling pressure on Mr
Johnson to take a harder stance to-
wards Beijing, the result is likely to
stoke further division among the Con-
servative Party’s Sinosceptics.
Mr Tugendhat said he was “delight-
ed” with the decision to suspend the
extradition treaty.
He turned down the meeting with Mr
Pompeo because the China Research
Group has a meeting with the Japanese
defence minister at the same time. “I
was delighted to be invited to meet
Mike Pompeo but he agreed it was
more important to build the alliance
with Japan than to consolidate old
friendships,” he said.year. Pro-democracy campaigners previously claimed that British-made tear gas grenades have been used against themNG HAN GUAN/AP