The UK risks becoming a dumping ground for the products of forced labour from Xinjiang province in China if it rejects reforms by members of the foreign affairs select committee with cross-party support, ministers have been warned. An amendment to the energy bill, due to be debated on Tuesday, would require solar energy companies to prove their supply chains are free of slave labour. The Xinjiang region is the source of 35-40% of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon, the key raw material in the solar photovoltaic supply chain. The amendment to…
Tag: James Cleverly
Britain has done more than ignore the Uyghur genocide – from politics to business, it is complicit | Rahima Mahmut
This week, yet another foreign secretary has justified engaging with the perpetrators of genocide, on the basis that going to Beijing would allow them to raise concerns in private. According to an official statement, James Cleverly made clear the UK’s “strength of feeling about the mass incarceration of the Uyghur people” in his bilateral meetings with senior Chinese government figures. Once again, this has shown China that when it comes to the mass contravention of human rights, the UK government has nothing but words in response and fails to stand…
Cleverly’s humiliating China visit was the perfect symbol of isolated, ill-led ‘global Britain’ | Simon Tisdall
Like a proselytising lay minister naively intent on calming troubled waters, foreign secretary James Cleverly flew into Beijing this week on a whinge and a prayer. The whinge comprised a long list of British grievances ranging from China’s attitude to Ukraine and Hong Kong to its spying on UK officials and sanctions on MPs. Cleverly’s prayer was that his hosts would not realise that, when it comes to pursuing a coherent China policy based on deliberate, principled choices backed by political will and economic muscle, rudderless Britain is all at…
Thursday briefing: What we learned from the foreign secretary’s trip to China
Good morning, or perhaps 你好 (nǐ hǎo). Hopefully James Cleverly got at least that far on Duolingo before the UK foreign secretary’s plane touched down in Beijing this week on a trip aimed at resetting ties after a long period of tension over security, investment and human rights concerns at home and abroad. It was the first visit to China by a UK foreign secretary for five years. Remember the last time, when Jeremy Hunt somehow ended up announcing that his Chinese wife was Japanese? Very odd. The meeting also…
The Guardian view on the UK and China: Britain is muddling along in dealing with Beijing | Editorial
There’s an old joke about a lost traveller asking how to reach their destination. The local they stop helpfully tells them: “If I were you, I wouldn’t start from here.” The foreign secretary made it to Beijing on Wednesday, but finds himself in something of the same situation when it comes to China policy. In a report published the same day, the foreign affairs committee rightly diagnosed a lack of coherence in the UK government’s approach to date. James Cleverly began from an unenviable position. For too long, the west…
James Cleverly says he has raised human rights concerns with China – video
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, who is in China to meet government officials, has faced criticism from members of the Conservative party who want a tougher line against a state that has imposed sanctions against several British MPs and peers for speaking out about human rights violations in the country. Speaking to Sky News, Cleverly said he had raised rights issues with Chinese officials. Pressed over violations in Xinjiang province, he said: ‘I’ve had a number of conversations with senior representatives of the Chinese government, and I have raised…
James Cleverly says he has ‘raised human rights’ in conversations with China amid criticism from Tories – UK politics live
From 54m ago Cleverly meets China’s vice-president amid criticism of Beijing by British MPs Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog. We start with news that the British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has met China’s vice-president, Han Zheng, during the first visit to Beijing by a UK foreign secretary in five years. During the meeting, Cleverly said it was important the two governments continued with regular face-to-face meetings to avoid misunderstandings. He also said it was important to address the challenges and differences of opinion that all…
James Cleverly meets China’s vice-president amid criticism of Beijing by British MPs
The British foreign secretary James Cleverly has met China’s vice-president, Han Zheng, during the first visit to Beijing by a UK foreign secretary in five years. During the meeting, Cleverly said it was important the two governments continued with regular face-to-face meetings to avoid misunderstandings. He also said it was important to address the challenges and differences of opinion that all countries had in bilateral relations, according to Reuters. Han said he hoped the bilateral relationship would make new advances through mutual respect and practical cooperation. On Wednesday afternoon, Cleverly…
The London art student whose Chinese political slogan mural caused a storm
When Wang Hanzheng, a Chinese student at the Royal College of Art, attended a graduate show in a warehouse on Brick Lane in east London in July, he found the space crowded, unimaginative and unfit for presenting art. It was with this in mind that at 11pm one night earlier this month Wang and a team of 22 others painted a Chinese political slogan in bold red characters along a nearby wall stretching nearly 100 metres. The artwork – which spelled out the Chinese government’s “socialist core values”, including the…
UK foreign secretary to challenge China over support for Russia in Ukraine war
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, will challenge Chinese officials in Beijing on Wednesday over their growing military support for Russia, but is intent that his meetings are seen as the renewal of a political dialogue that eventually revives UK trade with China. Before the meetings, he said no major international issue could be solved without China but added that the country had to live up to its international commitments and obligations. No significant global problem – from climate change to pandemic prevention, from economic instability to nuclear proliferation –…