British MPs cite LAC incident

LONDON: Terming China’s recent actions on India’s border an example of Chinese ‘aggressive expansionism’, British MPs on Monday night demanded a review of the UK’s dependence on China and highlighting the issue of human rights of Uyghur Muslims in international fora.

China was the focus of an extended debate in the House of Commons based on a new report by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China that said there is new evidence suggesting that

China is pursuing a birth-prevention programme targeted at Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region.

Iain Duncan-Smith, former Conservative leader, who tabled the urgent question, said it cannot be “business as usual” with China given what he called “bullying behavior” in relation to India, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

He added: “(Given) the Chinese Government’s appalling record on human rights, their attack on freedoms in Hong Kong, their bullying behaviour in border disputes from the South China seas to India, their blatant breaching of the rulesbased order governing the free market and their delayed declaration on Covid-19, will the Government now initiate an internal review of the UK’s dependence on China, with a view to significantly reducing that dependence?”

Nigel Adams, minister for Asia, responded that the government had raised concerns with China at many levels. Britain was pressing China for access to Xinjiang.

BRITISH DIPLOMATS VISITED THE REGION IN NOVEMBER 2019.