We must use our new freedom to play a leading role in stopping the genocide of the Uighurs
Internment camps, slave labour, state-organised abuse of women, forced sterilisations and the largest incarceration of a minority since the Second World War. The world hoped we would never see sights like these again, yet this is happening today to Uighurs in Xinjiang, China.
The US has acted decisively with its Uighur Human Rights Policy Act and Global Magnitsky Act, which allowed the US government to sanction responsible Chinese officials.
Yet the UK’s Magnitsky sanctions regime doesn’t have any Chinese officials on the list at all.
If we’re not going to use our Magnitsky powers for gross violations of human rights like these, what’s the point in having them?
The Government has announced further restrictions on UK companies that buy goods from Xinjiang, but this does not go nearly far enough.
Genocide is the vilest of all crimes and the term must not be used inaccurately. The International Criminal Court is capable of declaring that one exists but is handcuffed by China’s veto on the UN Security Council. We need to end this paralysis and allow British courts to play a role, so they can succeed where the UN is failing.
The UK has entered a new era. We have left the EU and taken back control of our trade policy, but we have to use this freedom to do good in the world.
Just as we lead on environmental standards and animal welfare, we must stand firm on this most basic principle: that we don’t do business with states and firms profiting from slave labour and genocide.
With Biden heading into the White House and Britain soon to take the presidency of the G7, now is the time for us to show what post-Brexit Britain is really about.
That’s why it is crucial that the UK’s post-Brexit Trade Bill allows British courts to play a role.
If our judges have seen credible evidence the crime of genocide is being committed, they should be able to make a statement to that effect for the Government to consider – not to dictate to Parliament or to tie the Government’s hands, just a preliminary statement so that we all stop and think about what we are doing.
This colossal crime against our fellow human beings implicates us all. Thirteen tons of hair recently turned up at the US border, ripped from human heads in the Uighur camps for American hair extensions. Slave labour helps produce many items that end up in our shops.
We must honour our responsibility never to let economic concerns trump ethical ones by dealing with genocidal states.
It’s time for Britain to show leadership and demonstrate that we don’t need the EU to set our values for us. We are both robust defenders of freedom, democracy, free trade and human rights.
We should use our Magnitsky Act to ensure that China’s worst offenders cannot keep their genocidal money in Britain, and that Britain is not a safe haven for dirty money.
And we must amend our post-Brexit Trade Bill so that Britain sends the strongest possible signal that if a country is mired in genocide, Britain will never be complicit. After the Holocaust we said “never again” – let’s not sit back and do nothing today.
In the 75 years since the Nuremberg trials, the UK and the UN have never succeeded in recognising a genocide while it was ongoing. We now have a chance to put that right.