Boris dad panders to China
Branded ‘state dupe’ over film
BORIS Johnson’s father has been accused of becoming “the mouthpiece of a brutal and genocidal” regime by collaborating on a TV series with China’s state broadcaster.
Tory veteran Stanley, 82, will retrace the Silk Road journey made by 13th-century merchant Marco Polo.
The three-part film is being jointly produced by China Central Television and UK company One Tribe.
CCTV is owned and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party – and Stanley admits it is choosing the shooting locations. The former MEP and I’m a Celeb star’s Instagram account documented a string of meetings as he wined and dined senior Chinese diplomats to get the green light for the show. Then-pm Boris’s dad invited ambassador Zheng Zeguang to his home last April, while in June he and son Max, 36, dined at the diplomat’s London residence.
Stanley and Max, who is Boris’s half-brother, will follow the Silk Road by motorbike for In the Footsteps of Marco Polo. And locations include Xinjiang province – where China is accused of brutally suppressing the minority Uyghur population.
The country was last month described as a “hostile state” by Transport Secretary Richard Holden.
And former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has said Stanley – who Boris has put forward for a knighthood – should be “ashamed” of himself.
He added: “It is propaganda. He is becoming a willing dupe in this process. Any decent journalist would know to accept these terms is to become a patsy for the brutal and genocidal Chinese Community Party.
“It is horrific that he would become the mouthpiece of a brutal, dictatorial Chinese government.”
Stanley said he believed One Tribe was working with Chinese state TV to “map out the places we ought to be going”.
Describing the documentary as a “bridgebuilding exercise” between the UK and China, he said: “Of course this is done with the co-operation of Chinese authorities.”
He added: “Don’t think we are going to be unaware of what our eyes see and what our ears hear.”
One Tribe boss Dale Templar said: “We have editorial control. We will be showing the film to CCTV because they are going to broadcast it.
“It’s not about politics, it is the story of Marco Polo.”