“You cannot have a Golden Age, normal relations, with a country that has now been exposed as committing the sorts of atrocities it has, not least the genocide against the Uighurs, the oppression going on in Tibet for the last 60/70 years, and now what we see going on in Hong Kong as well,”
-Tim Loughton told the BBC
Chinese Delegation banned from attending Queen’s funeral in Parliamentary Complex? Well, yes the spreading word is true. is All the preparations have been made for the Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on September 19 at Westminster Abbey. However, astonishingly according to UK media reports on Friday, the United Kingdom has denied entry for a high level Chinese Delegation to attend the Queen’s Lying-in-state at Westminster Hall within the parliamentary complex.
Source: Times of India
According to “Politico” and the BBC, House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle reportedly turned down a request for access to Westminster Hall because China has imposed penalties against five British lawmakers and two peers for pointing finger at Beijing for its mistreatment towards the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang.
THE CONFLICT
China sanctioned nine people and four organizations in the UK in March of last year in response after Britain slapped sanctions on Chinese officials for suspected violations of human rights in its Xinjiang province.
Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Tory MPs Tom Tugendhat, Neil O’Brien, Tim Loughton, and Nusrat Ghani are among those convicted as a result they and their families were prohibited from entering China.
To ensure that representatives from Beijing wouldn’t be permitted on the parliamentary property, the sanctioned MPs had earlier this week addressed a letter to the Parliament Speakers. They had also expressed reservations and objections in a letter to James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary.
In reaction to charges of rights violations against the primarily Muslim Uighur minority community, numerous Western nations have imposed penalties on several senior Chinese officials. In Xinjiang’s northwest, China has imprisoned Uighurs in camps where there have been reports of sexual abuse, forced labor, and torture. China has denied all those accusations.
Source: Reuters
THE AFTERMATH
According to Downing Street, it is customary to invite nations to state funerals with which the UK has diplomatic ties. Russia, Belarus, and Myanmar are the three national governments that have not been invited to the state burial of Queen Elizabeth II due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. This custom has also shown its effect on the Chinese delegation due to the atrocities against the Uighur.
Westminster Hall is under the control of the Commons and Lords Speakers because it is a part of the legislative estate. The move is most likely to put even more strain on the recently troubled UK-China relations. According to a spokesman for Prime Minister Liz Truss, Buckingham Palace determines who to invite after consulting with the foreign office, which customarily invites officials from countries with which Britain has diplomatic ties.
According to sources, the Chinese President Xi Jinping has been invited by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in his capacity as the Head of State of a nation with which the UK has diplomatic ties. However, It is anticipated that Wang Qishan, the vice-president, and a Chinese delegation will be dispatched as his replacement.
According to the Indian Express, while the House of Commons stated that it would not comment on security matters, media reports claimed that China would be present at the funeral but would not be allowed to gain access to the Parliamentary complex.
