Ulster Unionist peer Lord Rogan has strongly criticised the UK Government for failing to categorise human rights abuses in China as genocide and providing Chinese President Xi Jinping with “wiggle room” for his country’s aggressive approach towards Taiwan.
Lord Rogan
Speaking in a House of Lords debate earlier today, Lord Rogan – a co-chair of the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group – said there had been “a conveyer belt of UK Prime Ministers” who “failed to truly stand up to the Beijing bully boys over Taiwan.”
And he told peers that Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had recently advised a House of Lords committee that the Government supported a “peaceful process” in relation to the Chinese plan “to reunify Taiwan to mainland China.”
He said: “I have to say, that is a statement which surely had President Xi and his coterie rubbing their hands in glee. In contrast, I have no doubt that they were words that had the good people of Taiwan holding their heads in despair and fear.”
Lord Rogan said the world was gaining greater awareness of the appalling crimes committed by China against the Uyghur Muslims including killings, mass detentions, torture, forced mass sterilisation and cultural persecution.
He said: “The United States has accurately described China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide, with the Belgian, Canadian, Czech, Lithuanian and Dutch parliaments passing resolutions accusing the Chinese Government of committing genocide against them.
“So too has the UK Parliament.”
But he added: “Startlingly, this is not the formal view of Her Majesty’s Government which instead has held steadfastly to the position that it should ‘not make determinations in relation to genocide.’”
He said: “Failing to stand up to state-led aggression, sabre rattling and worse has terrible consequences, as the brave people of Ukraine are experiencing each and every day.
“Russia invaded Ukraine because President Putin believed he could get away with it.
“I hold the same fears about President Xi’s attitude towards Taiwan.”