Sharma in Tianjin, Raab in Pakistan, trouble in Westminster
A Beijing to Britain briefing
Hello,
Welcome to ‘Beijing to Britain’ - a weekly overview of the ebbs and flows of the discussion in Westminster and the City around the UK’s relationship with China, and how it impacts politics, the private sector and society.
Today’s Briefing breaks down into the following areas:
Politics
Sharma in China
Raab in Pakistan
Afghanistan statement
Ambassador visit
Taiwan
Rhetoric in Westminster
Business
Blocked takeover of Perpetuus Group
Universities
Greenland property scoop
Events and jobs
What’s going on next week and who’s hiring?
First, a quick look at this week for China in Parliament
39 mentions of China
No mentions of Xi Jinping
3 mentions of Hong Kong
3 mentions of Taiwan
2 mentions of Uyghur
0 mentions of CCP
1 mention of Magnitsky
589 out of 650 MPs (90.6%) have a Twitter account.
Politics
Climate, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Chinese Ambassador in Westminster, rhetoric
Globetrotting
Last Sunday, COP26 President Alok Sharma touched down in China. This trip is important for a number of reasons; it’s the first UK ministerial trip to the Middle Kingdom since 2019, both countries have climate change gatherings on the near horizon, and Sharma is keen to press Beijing on coal. Arriving in Tianjin, Britain's senior climate change official met with China’s Special Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua (the pair have met virtually a couple of times before). Sharma’s accompanying press release said "I welcome China's commitment to climate neutrality by 2060 and look forward to discussing China's policy proposals towards this goal, its plans for submitting an enhanced 2030 emissions reduction target, as well as how we work towards a successful multilateral outcome at COP26”.
His arrival was welcomed by Ambassador Wilson and Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy Christina Scott. The former noted that “Climate Action from China – the world’s second largest economy – will make a crucial contribution to global success in tackling this existential crisis”, while Scott tweeted “Quite right that first in-person Uk ministerial visit to China since 2019 should be on vital issue of climate change. Here’s to a successful two days of discussion in Tianjin.” Ambassador Wilson also delivered a speech at the Green Development Forum of the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing. We strongly suggest reading it in full, specifically noting the more nuanced rhetoric around the UK-China relationship regarding climate change.
Under Theresa May, Sharma visited the country twice, in 2016 and 2017. He (or his team) were prolific tweeters at the time, and we compiled some of the best here from his visits here. Funny in hindsight is that in 2017, Sharma hosted the FCO celebration of 45 years of UK-China ambassadorial relations at Lancaster House, which was sponsored by HSBC, EY, Bank of China and Huawei!
Hong Kong
Another blow for the 1997 declaration this week following Hong Kong police arresting four members of Hong Kong Alliance, a pro-democracy group that organises the annual June 4 rally to commemorate those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
The Foreign Office responded publicly by … tweeting. Here’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab: “Today's arrests of members of the Hong Kong Alliance are another chilling demonstration of how the National Security Law is being used by Beijing to dismantle civil society and stifle political dissent in Hong Kong.” Raab then added on Firday “Today marks the first time that the Hong Kong National Security Law has been used to charge a civil society organisation. This demonstrates the expanding use of the law to silence the Chinese Communist Party's critics, rather than the avowed aim of restoring security.”
Separately, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Asia Stephen Kinnock criticised the Government’s BN(O) scheme, saying it was “slow” and “inefficient”, and “extraordinary” that “only 20 per cent” of applications had been processed in the first quarter.
Grilling
Parliament opened with an emphatic start on Monday as both the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab delivered back to back statements on Afghanistan. While the bulk of questions from MPs related to the evacuation process or the situation on the ground, some did have a China angle.
The APPG on China’s Mark Logan asked the Prime Minister “what role does he envisage Pakistan, Uzbekistan and in particular China playing in the geopolitics of the region of central Asia in the months and years ahead?” [Video]
IPAC co-founder Iain Duncan Smith asked the Prime Minister if he “noticed that the Chinese Government, since our departure from Afghanistan, have used Afghanistan to up their threats on Taiwan, with hundreds of overflights threatening the Taiwanese and telling them that, when the war comes, the US will not be there to support them? Could my right hon. Friend take this opportunity, from the Dispatch Box, to say to the Taiwanese and others that we fully support their right to democracy and self-determination and we will be there to support them no matter what the Chinese say, and could we persuade the Americans to do the same?” [Video]
Labour’s shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy grilled Raab, asking “about the possibility that we might be in a position where we are sharing intelligence with countries such as China and Russia … This has been nothing short of a disaster, so I ask him now to turn with humility to the world and to start to repair some of those broken relationships, trashed alliances and broken promises that have reduced us to a position where we are reliant on the Taliban for permission to safeguard our own citizens and negotiating with China and Russia in our own interests?” [Video]
Tory MP and Foreign Affairs Committee member Henry Smith asked “what assessment has my right hon. Friend made of China’s growing involvement in Afghanistan, the geopolitical consequences and the UK’s response to that?”. Worth highlighting Raab’s answer: “There is a lot of talk about how China wants to rush in and fill the vacuum in Afghanistan, but I have to say that I am not entirely convinced that it does want to bear the entirety of the burden, whether it is the security and the terrorist burden or the financial burden of a country in such a precarious, fragile position. While we have many areas that are challenging with China, actually this is something where there are some commonalities of views and interests. I think in a situation such as this, whether it is China or other countries in the region, we need to try to work together, because we are much more likely, if we do so, to exercise maximum moderating influence on the Taliban, and that is what will yield results”.
Worth noting that Raab has recently returned from Pakistan, where he was seeking to “discuss how the 2 countries can work closely together on the situation in Afghanistan.” Raab’s press release stated “The basis for the UK-Pakistan relationship is very strong - and the UK has the desire to take it to the next level. We also have a very clear and shared interest in the future of Afghanistan.”
While this may have been the primary aim of the trip, readers will know that Pakistan has a particularly close relationship with one country firmly on Britain’s radar: China. Any British relationship with the Taliban and Afghanistan is going to have to contend with Chinese influence going forward - note for example that the Taliban invited Turkey, China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar to participate in the Government announcement day. It’s therefore of interest that the Foreign Office is making an effort to try and strengthen Pakistan-UK relations at this time.
Causing upset
It has emerged that Chinese Ambassador Zheng is due to visit Westminster at the invitation of the APPG on China on Wednesday. This has upset some MPs, particularly a handful of those currently sanctioned by the PRC. Why should we allow the Ambassador on the estate, they ask, given the event could have been held anywhere else in London? Why, given that the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Speaker have all promised to stand in solidarity with us, would we possibly want to have a PRC representative here? IPAC’s Iain Duncan Smith said it was “reprehensible”, adding “the representative of the Government who have sanctioned us, trolled us, broken some of our email accounts and taken our characters around the world is coming to Parliament next week, and I think that is unfathomable.” He was supported by one of the (22) vice-chairs of the APPGC, Alistair Carmichael, who quipped “I very much share his concerns. It is obviously necessary for us to engage in every way possible, but when the engagement is of the nature he described, that goes beyond normal engagement, and that should be a matter of concern across this Chamber.”
Separately, the Ambassador popped into the Foreign Office this week to meet Minister for Asia Nigel Adams. The Minister said he “stressed China must live up to international obligations in Hong Kong & Xinjiang”, while the Ambassador tweeted he “stressed China & UK should focus on cooperation & handle differences properly on the basis of mutual respect & equality, so as to promote sound & steady development of bilateral relations. China’s policy has been effective in promoting peace & stability, solidarity across ethnic groups & economic prosperity in Xinjiang. It is supported by people of all ethnicity living there. The National Security Law for Hong Kong & improvements to Hong Kong’s electoral system serve to uphold "One Country, Two Systems" & promote HK’s lasting stability and prosperity. The UK must respect the facts and refrain from interfering in China’s internal affairs.” Fruitful meeting!
Taiwan
Minister of State for Trade Policy Greg Hands met Taiwan's UK Representative Kelly Wu-Chiao Hsieh this week (pic). Representative Hsieh also met SNP Shadow Secretary for International Development & Climate Justice Chris Law and Labour MP Navendu Mishra at an APPG for Taiwan event.
More chatter
It’s worth reading this South China Morning Post profile of some of the current rhetoric and views floating around Westminster as it was shared widely on social media. We’ve summarised them below:
Sir Vince Cable’s comments are summarised as arguing that “Britain should drop sanctions on Chinese officials, pipe down on human rights, and stop taking its talking points from the Trump wing of the US Republican Party.” He tells the paper that “simply shouting at China over human rights is completely unproductive”, and adds that “the current political fashion is to be confrontational and that applies across the House of Commons, where it’s being led by the right, people like [former Conservative Party leader] Iain Duncan Smith and the China Research Group.”
Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Asia & Pacific, notes “I have a lot of respect for Vince Cable, and I agree with him on many issues. But on China, Vince is an apologist for a government that is crushing liberty in Hong Kong, committing horrific crimes against its own citizens in Xinjiang and consistently violating international law in the South China Sea.”
Sir Mark Hendrick, Labour MP for Preston and former chair of the All Party Parliamentary China Group adds ‘Britain’s China policy had been hijacked by a group of “flag-waving old Etonians around Westminster who hark back to the days of the empire and Winston Churchill. We should start looking at trying to get a decent relationship with our neighbours in Europe, and solving some problems at Northern Ireland and the problems that we’ve seen with Brexit, instead of messing around with sending warships to the Far East.”
Richard Graham, the former British trade commissioner for China who is now a Conservative MP and current chair of the All Party Parliamentary China Group says “The UK has always had the most open investment approach of all Western countries, historically, and we took what was broadly considered the Wimbledon view, i.e. that if we were hosting the world’s best tennis tournament, it didn’t matter so much who the winners were – the event was happening in UK. And if the UK is going to succeed after leaving the EU, it’s going to have to remain incredibly attractive and open to FDI from all over the world. The integrated review made it quite clear that this includes strong trade and investment with and from China.”
And Mark Logan, Conservative MP for Bolton and APPGC Vice-Chair, concludes the piece by saying “You are going to find me finding a way for engagement more than most other MPs. And I don’t mince my words on that, because I think otherwise, things won’t end up in a very good place, bilaterally and for world stability,” he said, adding that these days, it is “not a very fashionable thing to say”.
Business
Perpetuus, universities
Blocked
Could that be the Government being proactive in stopping foreign takeovers of critical assets? On Tuesday, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng ordered a national security review of a takeover by a Chinese academic of a small Welsh manufacturer of graphene (Gov statement here.) Perpetuus has three sites in south Wales and makes graphene and carbon nanotubes, materials that are hoped to have useful applications in an array of industries ranging from electronics and defence to medicine.
The UK-Chinese history of graphene is interesting - read this FCDO blogpost from 2017 lauding the first UK-China Graphene Standardisation Cooperation Working Group Conference. In May this year it emerged that a Chinese military scientist has been conducting research with a team at Cambridge University on the revolutionary substance. Fun fact - Manchester University’s National Graphene Institute is known as the heart of global graphene research, and both Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei and the Aero Engine Corporation of China have conducted research there. Bonus fun fact - President Xi Jinping toured during his state visit to the United Kingdom in 2015!
Chinese influence in British universities
Two quick bits on universities this week. First, the Global Times reported that “Chinese students have been experiencing delays in getting UK visas, which was caused by an increasing volume of visa applications”. The paper added that Covid and anti-racism hate were also playing a role in putting Chinese students off applying for Western universities.
Second, and perhaps most interesting, was evidence given during an examination of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill. MPs heard from Trevor Phillips, writer, broadcaster and former politician, who told them that “we have concerns that certain countries—I am specifically thinking of China—covertly monitor and try to control the behaviour of their students. That has been exacerbated by the introduction of security laws in Hong Kong. It seems to me that a regulator should have the will, the power and the capability to ensure that those students and their right to express their opinions are protected.” Note John McDonnell’s response. Later in the following session, those gathered heard from Labour’s Kevan Jones about the work of the United Front on campuses throughout the UK.
See ya later
A Telegraph scoop has revealed Chinese developer Greenland, which appointed agents Knight Frank and CBRE to sell part of its Ram Quarter development in Wandsworth earlier this year, is understood to be weighing up plans to sell the entire scheme as well as Spire London, a proposed residential tower in Canary Wharf. An insider tells the paper: “They are super, super sensitive and they don’t really want it talked about. It is the Chinese government beginning to apply pressure that they’ve applied on various companies to repatriate money… I don’t know but my sense is that that probably is the case here.”
Events and jobs
What’s on next week and who’s hiring? Want to add your events or job openings to the next briefing? Reply to this email.
Events
Monday: Final day of the Uyghur Tribunal in London, (link), Tuesday: protest outside new Chinese Embassy building, (link) Wednesday: Writer Ian Williams interviews Sir Vince Cable (tickets), Chatham House holds talk on ‘State sponsored hostage-taking’, Labour’s Lisa Nandy speaking (link)……Thursday: Chatham House hosts ‘9/11 and China’ (link),
Jobs
We’ve had a fair number of people message asking about job opportunities. We’re going to start rounding them up here every couple of weeks.
MI5 and MI6 are hiring university students for their Summer Diversity Intelligence Internship (link), The Telegraph are looking for journalists in Hong Kong (link), the Taipei Representative Office in the UK is hiring a Press and Communications Adviser (link), Orbis is looking for an Open Source Research Analyst (link), Policy Exchange is hiring an intern (link), the China Britain Business Council is hiring Research and Editing Interns in China (link), the EU SME Centre is hiring an intern in China (link), Craigclown Xi’an is hiring a Head (link), CRU is hiring a Research Analyst in China (link)
That’s it for this week. Like the new format? Let us know.
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