UK Parliament
Beijing: Terming its sanctions on five UK parliamentarians as “completely justified and reasonable”, China today condemned the UK Parliament’s decision to ban the Chinese Ambassador to UK from attending the All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) event scheduled at the parliamentary estate.
Yesterday, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the Commons, and Lord John McFall, the Lord Speaker in the upper house, had banned the Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang from attending a reception in the Houses of Parliament in response to China’s earlier announced sanctions on the UK parliamentarians, and also reportedly over the twin issues of persecution of Uyghur Muslims and surveillance to Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian today said that the move to ban the Chinese Ambassador was “instigated by some anti-China parliamentarians”. He said since the UK Parliament did not agree to hold the event with the participation of the Chinese Ambassador to the UK at the parliamentary estate, “China strongly condemns this and will have to make necessary responses”.
Stressing that China’s sanctions on a “handful of anti-China” parliamentarians of the UK was a “necessary response to these people who spread slanderous rumors and disinformation and to the unilateral sanctions imposed by the UK side”, Lijian said in an obvious reference to UK’s move to ban Chinese government’s telecom giant Huawei from playing a main role in the rollout of Britain’s new 5G telecoms system last year. Claiming that the “words and deeds” of these British MPs’ were detrimental to China’s core interests, Lijian said “the Chinese side always responds resolutely and never tolerates wrong moves”.
As two major economies and permanent members of the UN Security Council, Lijian said it was an obvious fact that cooperation between China and the UK meets the development needs of both countries and contributes to tackling global challenges.
“China urges the British Parliament to immediately rescind its wrong decision, earnestly restrain the words and deeds of certain members, bear in mind the interests of the people and the well-being of the world, and make more concrete efforts to consolidate and develop China-UK relations,” he added.
– global bihari bureau
