ARichTeaBiscuit: China's human rights abuses need to be addressed by the UK

Over the past few weeks, much has been said about the current human rights abuses being conducted by the Chinese government against its population, with this debate awakening once more with the forwarding of a motion written by the DRF that mentioned support for placing harsh economic sanctions on the Chinese economy if they don't take immediate steps to improve their standing on human rights.

While a majority of the debate rightfully centred around the condemnation of the Chinese government for the mistreatment of its own population, with concern noted over the continued existence of modern-day concentration camps for the Uyghur population, I noted with some concern that TheWalkerLife, a rather senior member of the Conservative Party dismissed the content of the motion saying, "Oh, is Parliament back to the telling other countries how they can or can’t conduct themselves game?" as if telling a nation not to operate concentration camps rife with allegations of sexual assault and illegal organ harvesting was patently offensive.

It is often said that we should turn a blind eye to the situation occurring in China because it is none of our business, or because it doesn’t threaten our people and that the economic fallout even from challenging China would be too big, a complaint that I often heard about those decrying Sunrise’s tough stance on China after the British Steel incident, but this is also a statement that struck me as quite brazen not just because it discounted the rather unique situation that exists between the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and China in regards to our role in ensuring that Hong Kong's status is protected but also because I believe that simply shrugging off the plight of the people suffering in China from an authoritarian regime because it doesn't impact British citizens directly is an incredibly cold and isolationist position that we should not accept.

As I said during the course of the parliamentary debate on the motion, the crimes being committed against the Uyghur population, the repression of religion and freedom of speech via the destruction of religious sites and artefacts and the establishment of the dystopian social credit system, and the well noted repression of pro-democracy protesters is something that we should challenge, especially as we have seen China try and use its economic power to expand its own influence in the developing world, a step that both threatens to burden these nations with massive debt to China but also promotes their authoritarian practices at the expense of democracy.

It is that growing influence that underlines the importance of the United Kingdom's own international development efforts, as only through our own efforts can we ensure that nations in the developing world have a credible alternative to Chinese money, and we can do that by ensuring that our efforts are using to spur the growth of small-medium sized businesses and the infrastructure that these nations need to form sustainable inward growth, as opposed to the historic practices that focus on just getting natural resources out of the country, and we can go even further by adding administrative assistance to further good governance and democracy.

Instead of looking at the dire situation in China and just shrugging our shoulders, we need to work together with our allies in the international community to stand against China, a step that nations like Australia, New Zealand and the United States are already taking in response to the Belt and Road Initiative.

By refusing to get involved in a situation unless it directly harms British citizens, one is not only sending a signal to the Chinese government that it can continue to get away with its abuses but it is also greenlighting its expansion into the developing world, and such an isolationist viewpoint must be fought against.

ARichTeaBiscuit is the Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition.