Tories’ China links election pledge
Dowey vows to cancel twinning ties on day one of victory
South Ayrshire Conservative Group leader Martin Dowey has vowed to ‘unfriend’ the Chinese city of Liaocheng on ‘day one’ if his party are elected in May.
However, Deputy Council Leader Brian McGinley said those opposed to South Ayrshire Council’s friendship agreement lacked ‘vision, ability and commitment’ to build bridges with China.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that MI5 had warned of an alleged Chinese agent they said had ‘infiltrated’ Parliament in a bid to interfere in UK politics.
Critics have previously pointed to a report from Amnesty International describing torture and other abuses.
Councillor Dowey, said: “Sometimes you have to deal with regimes, but for South Ayrshire to do an equivalent of twinning is an absolute joke. I was disappointed that some of SNP abstained instead of voting with us.
“If we are returned to power in May I will cancel it straight away.
“This has nothing to do with the Conservative Party. It is about South Ayrshire being tied to this but cherish regime of the Chinese.
“Do we need to deal with China? Yes. If a Chinese delegation came over and said they wanted to buy Prestwick Airport and invest in it, would I say no? No.
“But we don’t need to be hugging them.”
But Councillor McGinley was adamant that the link up was a positive route to take.
He said: “First, the Tories are very good at voting against and destroying developments but they appear to lack the vision, ability and commitment to continue the hard work that others have put in over years to build bridges.
“Secondly, this Chinese spying allegation, to which this is a reaction, is a deflection story to project the blame away from the fact that the Tory government is in serious trouble in terms of poor competence, ring fencing privileged access for their chums and a failure to deliver on their empty promises of Brexit.
“This local Tory intention adds to this ‘bogeyman’ narrative that pushes guilt onto others for doing something that they do too. The Tories do not seem to care that such action will break off friendly relations and undermine all the goodwill that has been built up.”
And he added: “Thirdly, it is important for the Council to build good relations with other institutions and organisations to create stability and growth through better understanding and increasing positive relationships.
“However, this is long term, painstaking work and we know from recent press articles that the Tories like to party while the rest of us work.
“Therefore, promoting this type of difficult relationship would prove too difficult for the Tories to deliver as it runs contrary to their selfish mantras of popular short-termism and ‘every one looking out for themselves’.”
South Ayrshire Council agreed to a friendship agreement with Liaocheng City in June 2021, claiming that it would result in tangible benefits, including increased visitors from China.