Sir Ian Duncan Smith has said an official from a region of China accused of “genocide” should be arrested if he arrives in the UK for talks with the Foreign Office.
Former Tory leader Sir Ian Duncan Smith has said the Governor of Xinjiang should be arrested if he comes to Britain.
Erkin Tuniyaz may travel to the UK next week and could meet Foreign Office directors at an undisclosed location and not at its King Charles Street HQ.
The Foreign Office was this week widely condemned by MPs for entertaining the idea of talks with the governor given China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
This includes allegations of forcibly sterilising women and of putting children in “concentration camps”.
The Tory grandee said there is an attempt to bring a private prosecution against Mr Tuniyaz which the Attorney General, Victoria Prentis KC MP, who has to approve such a move.
He claimed the West has turned a “pretty casual” blind eye against abuses in Xinjiang as well as in Hong Kong.
“My view is that China understands strength. It always reacted to strength, and they kick you around if you appear to be ambivalent or weak. Look at the way the Americans, right now, are dealing with them.”
“They have sanctioned far more people and done far more economic sanctions in Xinjiang as well so the reality is, right now, we have got to start being much tougher on China to say, ‘If you want to be part of the free market, if you want to be treated by the rest of the world as a partner, then you have to start abiding by the standard laws and responsibilities that come with that, including full human rights.”
“They are at the moment practicing slave labour, a thing we thought we hadn’t seen since the ending of the Second World War.”
Summery above comes from the linked news story -> Sir Ian Duncan Smith calls for arrest of Xinjiang governor if he touches British soil
