MPS: block Chinese official from Interpol

BRITISH MPS are urging the Government to block the candidacy of a Chinese security official from a key Interpol committee over concerns Beijing will use its influence to target dissidents who have sought refuge abroad.

Hu Binchen, a deputy general in China’s Ministry of Public Security, is standing for a three-year term on Interpol’s 13-member executive committee.

If successful, his election would allow the Chinese government to abuse the Interpol Red Notice “to persecute dissidents in exile”, according to a letter signed by nine MPS including Lord David Alton, Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Nusrat Ghani, along with more than 40 politicians from 20 other countries.

It would amount to “giving a green light to the PRC government to continue their misuse of Interpol”, and provide “cover for its repressive policies abroad” targeting Hongkongers, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Taiwanese and Chinese, the letter added.

Almost 40 activists. including people from those communities. have issued a similar statement highlighting that they are among those at risk if China were to gain more influence at Interpol.

“It is inappropriate for serious abusers of Interpol to be given prominent positions to lead it,” read the letter, signed by prominent activists including Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress and Ted Hui Chifung, a former Hong Kong politician who fled the city earlier this year.

China has already tried to use Interpol red notices to go after political targets. Mr Isa was the subject of one for almost two decades. He was detained in Italy in 2017 as a result, before the notice was eventually deleted in 2018.