Last week’s US sanctioning of Chinese officials involved in Beijing’s ongoing criminal efforts to erase Tibet as a separate political, ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious entity showed America at its best. Few other governments give a hoot. Most cravenly look the other way. Citing a recent UN report on the “forced assimilation” of one million Tibetan children ordered into Mandarin-language state boarding schools far from their homes and families, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, demanded China stop trying to eradicate Tibet’s distinct identity. “We urge PRC [People’s Republic…
Tag: James Cleverly
Liz Truss’s plan to visit Taiwan called ‘worst kind of Instagram diplomacy’
The Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee has launched a blistering attack on Liz Truss over the former prime minister’s planned trip to Taiwan, calling it “the worst kind of Instagram diplomacy”. Alicia Kearns said she thought Truss’s trip planned for next week was little more than a vanity project aimed at keeping her profile high after her brief spell as prime minister last year. Truss is planning to travel to show “solidarity” with the Taiwanese people amid aggression from Beijing. Taiwan is a self-governing democracy, but Beijing…
Keir Starmer says ‘vast majority’ of Labour leadership pledges still stand as he backs away from abolishing tuition fees – UK politics live
From 3h ago Starmer claims ‘vast majority’ of his Labour leadership pledges still stand In his Today interview Keir Starmer said he was no longer committed to the promise to abolish tuition fees that he made when standing for the Labour leadership because “we are in a different economic situation”. But he claimed the “vast majority” of the promises he made in that contest, most famously set out in a list of 10 pledges, still applied. He told Today’s Justin Webb: We are in a different economic situation. You and…
A Taiwan invasion would destroy world trade, says Cleverly in speech on China – video
In a speech on Britain’s relationship with China, UK foreign secretary James Cleverly warns a war across theTaiwan strait would have global repercussions, urging against unilateral action altering the status quo. And while acknowledging China represents an authoritarian tradition at odds with Britain’s, he said he wanted Britain to engage directly with China, bilaterally and multilaterally, in a reflection of its ‘global importance’. ‘We have an obligation to future generations to engage because otherwise we would be failing in our duty to sustain – and shape – the international order.…
If China invaded Taiwan it would destroy world trade, says James Cleverly
A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would destroy world trade, and distance would offer no protection to the inevitable catastrophic blow to the global economy, the UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, warned in a set piece speech on Britain’s relations with Beijing. In remarks that differ from French president Emmanuel Macron’s attempts to distance Europe from any potential US involvement in a future conflict over Taiwan, and which firmly support continued if guarded engagement with Beijing, Cleverly said “no country could shield itself from the repercussions of a war in Taiwan”.…
UK expected to stop funding Chinese state-linked Mandarin teaching schools
UK government funding for Mandarin teaching at branches of the Chinese state-linked Confucius Institute is to be axed, but they will not be closed, as Rishi Sunak promised last year. The step is expected to be announced by James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, on Tuesday and comes as research shows that a secretive visa scheme has been used to fast-track Chinese government-vetted staff to come to the UK to promote Chinese Communist party (CCP) values at the institutes. There are 30 branches of the Confucius Institute, which teaches Chinese language…
James Cleverly on taking a new approach to foreign policy – and belting out the Beatles with Blinken
In the early hours of Friday morning New Zealand time, James Cleverly was holed up in the British high commission in Wellington calling international partners about the mounting crisis in Sudan. It didn’t take long for him to realise that he would have to cut short his visit and make the long journey back to London. Emergency meetings were already under way in Whitehall preparing for the evacuation of British diplomats from Khartoum. The clashes, which began last weekend as a power struggle between rival military factions, have derailed a…
Baltic states condemn China envoy’s remarks over sovereignty of ex-Soviet nations
France, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have expressed dismay after China’s ambassador in Paris questioned the sovereignty not only of Ukraine, but all the former Soviet Republics including the Baltic states. Lu Shaye’s remarks in a TV interview late on Friday raise fresh questions about the faith the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has placed in China to act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine. Lu had been asked whether he considered the peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, part of Ukraine under international law. “Even these…
Brexiters have a new threat to focus their nationalism on: China. But their influence is waning | Martin Kettle
Cleverly by name. And perhaps even Cleverly by nature, too? Judging by his Guardian interview this week, and by his step-by-step rebuilding of Britain’s relations with Europe, James Cleverly seems to be quietly cajoling Conservative foreign policy down off the post-Brexit battlements and towards a more recognisably practical and stable place in world affairs. If so, two important questions follow. Where exactly is that new place for Britain? And will the Tory party let him do it? The foreign secretary’s interview in Tokyo exemplifies Rishi Sunak-era pragmatism. The interview’s tone…
UK should not ‘pull the shutters down’ on China, says James Cleverly
Britain should not “pull the shutters down” on China, as it would be counterproductive to the national interest, the foreign secretary has told the Guardian. In a warning to Conservative hawks, James Cleverly insisted there was not a binary choice to be made between treating China as either a threat or an opportunity, and said the UK’s approach needed to be more nuanced. It comes as the government attempts to navigate Beijing’s growing economic and political reach, with influential Tory MPs pressing the prime minister and his cabinet to take…