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

Britain

Sarah Zhengin Beijing

Published: 5:07pm, 28 May 2021

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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.

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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.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stressed Britain’s concerns about conditions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Photo: Reuters

During the conversation with Wang, Raab underscored Britain’s concerns with the situation in Hong Kong and human rights violations in Xinjiang, and stressed that United Nations human rights experts should be given “unfettered access” to Xinjiang. It said the two discussed the importance of the countries working together on issues such as climate change and global health, as well as exchanging views on Myanmar, Iran and North Korea.

“The ministers ended their call agreeing that there are opportunities for the two countries to work together, from trade to tackling biodiversity loss, and said they looked forward to further discussions on these issues,” Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said.

Relations between China and Britain have been strained in recent months, particularly over human rights concerns in China. After Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in June last year, the British government said it would provide a pathway to citizenship for people in the former British colony with British National (Overseas) passports, which were issued to those born before the handover of Hong Kong from British to Chinese sovereignty.

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In March, Beijing sanctioned British individuals, including members of parliament, in response to British sanctions on China over its actions in Xinjiang that were enacted jointly with the European Union, the United States and Canada.

British International Trade Secretary Liz Truss warned on Thursday that the country must not become “dependent” on trade with China, after official data showed that goods imported from China to Britain grew 66 per cent in the first quarter of the year from 2018.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: trade is on cards but respect our sovereignty, Britain told