Speaking out against China is the right thing to do, but there’s a price to pay

Editorial: We cannot condemn China and trade with it at the same time

Britain can’t have its cake and eat it (Getty/iStock)

It’s fair to say that, until recently, the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party wasn’t much bothered about the doings of Sir Iain Duncan Smith or, very possibly, had ever heard of the former leader of the Conservatives (2001-2003). That may still be true, in terms of the elite of Beijing, but some of the most outspoken critics of China have been noticed by the authorities there, and they’ve had some fairly nominal, but still symbolic, sanctions slapped on them.

So congratulations, then, to Sir Iain on the back-handed compliment paid to him by President Xi’s minions; and praise also to the others singled out for sticking up for the Uighur people, for Tibet, for Hong Kong, against Chinese expansionism in the seas around it, and for liberal democratic values generally. The names of fellow MPs Nusrat Ghani, Tim Loughton and Neil O’Brien, plus peers Baroness Kennedy and Lord Alton, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, chair of the Uighur Tribunal, and Newcastle University academic Jo Smith Finley, whose research focuses on the Uighurs, deserve to be recorded with thanks. If more spoke out as they have, then perhaps China might take more notice.

As it happens the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, did take the opportunity to object to the sanctioning of the “British Eight” critics, declaring that: “If Beijing want to credibly rebut claims of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, it should give ⁦@UNHumanRights access to verify facts”. The prime minister was more direct in his tweeting: “The MPs and other British citizens sanctioned by China today are performing a vital role shining a light on the gross human rights violations being perpetrated against Uyghur Muslims. Freedom to speak out in opposition to abuse is fundamental and I stand firmly with them.”