Britain has done more than ignore the Uyghur genocide – from politics to business, it is complicit
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 up for its values.
Shocking as this is, it is hardly surprising, given not just the failure to protect the Uyghur people from genocide but the concerted efforts to deny the facts and a wilful ignorance across politics, business and civil society in the UK.
When British MPs, the Biden administration and others declared the systematic persecution of China’s Uyghurs to be a genocide, it was not without a deep understanding of the gravity of this term. The declaration of genocide has been evidenced by the independent Uyghur tribunal, chaired by judge and barrister Geoffrey Nice KC.
In stark contrast, the silence of UK ministers and the refusal of the government to use the word “genocide” when discussing the plight of Uyghurs is palpable. Meanwhile, with an increasingly worrying regularity, pivotal figures and organisations within the upper echelons of British society are opting to turn a blind eye to the reality of genocide.
Take the example of at least 16 UK universities that have been found to have links with with Chinese Communist party (CCP)-linked gene giant BGI Group. The company’s subsidiaries have been sanctioned by the US government for their role in the Chinese state’s abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress Uyghurs and other ethnic groups. When challenged by my campaign, Stop Uyghur Genocide, and others on this, Edinburgh University, relied on a claim that it was not aware of the issues. Exeter University said that “no specific claims on data privacy have been raised with the university”.
Think that through for a moment: leading research centres in the UK have a track record of working with a company complicit with genocide and their excuse is: we didn’t know, nothing to see here. But who can blame them – when they’ve seen Whitehall giving multimillion-pound Covid contracts to the same CCP-linked DNA giant?
Sadly, it is not just the university sector. In a profoundly unsettling statement, Sherard Cowper-Coles of HSBC described the UK as “weak” for barring CCP companies linked to the use of Uyghur slaves and the surveillance state. He later apologised for any offence caused, but the incident is a glaring reminder of the compromises being made for business interests, even when they are intertwined with a human rights crisis.
This is the same HSBC that backed the restrictive national security law in Hong Kong – a law that led to the incarceration of lawmakers, human rights advocates and pro-democracy activists.
In a similarly disconcerting vein, a public affairs firm run by Peter Mandelson, an influential figure in Keir Starmer’s Labour party, is advising TikTok, even as global authorities express reservations owing to security implications and alleged links to the CCP.
It is still common to see the word “Hikvision” on cameras across the country, from our airports and train stations to hospital wards and school playgrounds. Each Hikvision camera in the UK grows the revenue and profits of a company that has been contracted in China to design, implement and directly operate surveillance across the concentration camps where Uyghurs are detained. Yet action remains sorely lacking – with only a limited removal of Hikvision cameras from “sensitive” government sites and no wider plan to stop public and private bodies funnelling money to a company complicit in genocide.
For Uyghurs living outside China, the horrors aren’t distant news stories – they are personal tragedies. We are living witnesses to the atrocities meted out to our people. From 25 June to 30 September, the CCP has embarked on a “strike hard” campaign against Uyghurs under the pretext of regional security. In reality this means restrictions on gatherings, religious and cultural practices, and police raids on Uyghur households. Xi Jinping’s recent visit and intent to accelerate the “assimilation” of Uyghurs further solidifies the CCP’s genocidal policy.
What more has to transpire before the UK and the wider international community replace short-term interests with a resolute and firm dedication to human rights? After the Holocaust, the world said “never again”. That sentiment has to be made real and it starts with challenging those, who for their own interests, are ignoring or denying genocide.
Genocide, as a term and a reality, demands swift, concrete responses, not silent complicity. It’s high time for democratic nations and the free people living in them to determine where they stand and act accordingly.
Rahima Mahmut is executive director of Stop Uyghur Genocide and UK director of the World Uyghur Congress
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