China-UK relations: Beijing plays up trade but says Britain must respect its sovereignty

In foreign ministers’ call Wang Yi defends China’s policies on Hong Kong and Xinjiang while Dominic Raab raises human rights concerns

China replaces Germany as Britain’s biggest source of imports, prompting warnings within Britain not to become too dependent on trade with China

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China became Britain’s largest goods trading partner in the first quarter of the year. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:07pm, 28 May 2021Updated: 10:05pm, 28 May 2021

Beijing has called on Britain not to interfere in its internal issues, including on Hong Kong and Xinjiang, while playing up trade potential as China replaces Germany as Britain’s biggest source of imports.

In a phone call with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing was open to exchanges with Britain on “sensitive issues”, but said the British government needed to “respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, according to a read-out from the Chinese foreign ministry.

He called for the two sides to work together on global issues and said trade ties between them had shown their “potential and resilience”, as China became Britain’s largest goods trading partner in the first quarter of the year.

“We look at issues from different perspectives, so it is an objective reality that there are differences between us,” Wang said.

“It is important for us to conduct equal dialogues with the spirit of mutual respect to enhance understanding, remove doubts, clarify facts and to distinguish between right and wrong. ‘Microphone diplomacy’ is not advisable, and engaging in ‘small-circle politics’ is even more inconsistent with the requirements of our time.”

Wang defended Beijing’s political clampdown on Hong Kong as necessary to ensure the city’s stability and its “one country, two systems” model of semi-autonomy, and repressive Chinese policies in Xinjiang as a question of combating separatism and violence.

Along with other countries such as the United States and Australia, Britain has consistently raised concerns about the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy from Beijing, and of human rights abuses against ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang that the British parliament has said amounts to genocide.