Unseen FCDO emails, Vodafone debate, New Sanctions Unit, Cameron meets Lai

A Beijing to Britain briefing

Hello,

Beijing to Britain has acquired internal Government emails sent earlier this year in the run-up to a difficult visit by Erkin Tuniyaz, the governor of Xinjiang. Thanks to a successful Freedom of Information Request, we can take a deeper look into the thinking that went into this attempted meeting - which the Foreign Office was not keen to hold.

The contents are important to consider in my view primarily for two reasons. Firstly, they give an insight into how the Government thinks about diplomacy at a time when Parliament is extremely adversarial. Second, it shows how the FCDO was planning on utilising this meeting, which allows us to see what the plan was, rather than how it was portrayed in the media by MPs, activists and journalists. When you’ve read the emails and how the FCDO wanted to utilise this unwelcome meeting, it’s hard not to feel that on some level, this was a missed opportunity.

Also in today’s note, we examine a new sanctions unit set up to track down companies evading sanctions on Russi-related issues. As with many of these units and schemes set up during the last two years of the illegal war, I hold the view that it’s worth seeing them through the lens of how they might be deployed should any grey-zone action arise around Taiwan.

Finally, this will be the last weekly briefing of the year. At some point between Christmas and New Year, I’ll be sending out our annual End of Year Note, which studies thematically what’s happened and what’s to come.

- Sam Hogg, Editor

This will be the last weekly briefing note you receive from Beijing to Britain in 2023

In this week’s briefing:

• FOI emails from the FCDO

• British Government statements on Hong Kong, South China Sea and Jimmy Lai

• Debate on Vodafone and Three UK merger

• New group in Westminster