UK’s Starmer Faces Pressure to Get Tougher on China at G20

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (third from left) during a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping of China (third from right), at the Sheraton Hotel, as he attends the G20 summit in on Nov. 18, 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Stefan Rousseau - WPA Pool/Getty Images

British lawmakers and human rights advocates have criticized Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after he declined to issue a public condemnation of Hong Kong’s sentences of pro-democracy activists at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday.

Starmer also faced censure over his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday, footage of which showed the prime minister bringing up China’s revived plan to build a mega embassy in London but not demanding the release of Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media mogul and a British national jailed in Hong Kong.

On Tuesday, 45 of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists received sentences of between four to ten years in prison. They previously pleaded guilty or were convicted of “conspiracy to subvert state power” for their active participation in pro-democracy primary elections in 2020 that the Hong Kong government warned at the time could be in breach of the Beijing-imposed national security law (NSL).

After their sentencing, Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said the United States “strongly condemns the harsh sentences imposed in the National Security Law” and is preparing new sanctions on Hong Kong officials responsible for implementing the law.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that she was “gravely concerned” by the sentences, and urged China to repeal the draconian law.

In a statement, the UK’s foreign minister for Indo-Pacific Catherine West called the sentencing a “clear demonstration of the Hong Kong authorities’ use of the NSL to criminalise political dissent.”

The minister added, “The UK will always stand up for the people of Hong Kong, and all states should uphold their international obligations to protect these fundamental rights.”

In Brazil, Starmer, when questioned by reporters about the sentencing, said he had “a frank discussion” with Xi about the two countries’ differences and will continue to do so, and that the UK also wants “closer economic partnership” with the world’s second-largest economy.

Starmer’s response drew criticism from politicians and human rights advocates, including senior Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who is sanctioned by Beijing over his public condemnation of the Chinese regime’s human rights violations.

“I’m deeply saddened by the position of the PM, and also to the opaque reference he made to ‘we (the UK) should be frank about our differences with China’,” the former Tory leader wrote on X.

In an email to The Epoch Times, Lord Alton of Liverpool, who is also sanctioned by communist China, said the prime minister’s failure to publicly condemn the sentences is “lamentable.”

“Increasingly government policy seems to be determined to ‘follow the money’ with a complete failure to learn from the lessons of the past. Making ourselves more and more economically dependent on a state accused of genocide, which uses slave labour, is an appalling direction of travel for a Labour government,” he said.

Mark Sabah, UK and EU director of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, said he is disappointed that the UK’s statement through Minister West didn’t come from the prime minister or Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

“If they really want to show that they are on the side of Hongkongers and that they care about the future of Hong Kong, then they should have made a public statement,” he told The Epoch Times.

Benedict Rogers, co-founder and trustee of Hong Kong Watch, said while the new Labour government is still carrying out its “audit” of the UK’s China policy, early signs, including Starmer’s remarks on Tuesday, show “worrying” signs that the government has “softened quite considerably compared to the previous government and also compared to Labour’s position in opposition.”

In response, a spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) pointed The Epoch Times to West’s earlier statement. The Cabinet Office didn’t respond by the time of publishing.

Jimmy Lai

Since one-party Beijing imposed its rubber-stamped NSL on Hong Kong in 2020, the UK government has declared that China has been in continuous breach of the Sino-British Declaration, which was meant to guarantee democracy and the rule of law in the former British colony for at least 50 years following its handover to Beijing in 1997.

Questioning the government on Wednesday, shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said the declaration “has been trampled on yet again” by the sentences on Tuesday.

She asked whether the prime minister had asked Xi to release Lai, who has been jailed under Beijing’s NSL.

Protesters outside a lecture by Judge Patrick Keane in Sydney, Australia, calling for the release of Jimmy Lai, a political prisoner held in Hong Kong. Supplied

“We understand the prime minister did raise concerns, but that is not enough. Did he call for Jimmy Lai to be released and for an end to his politically motivated trial? A yes or no answer is needed, because there is an important distinction between the two,” Patel said.

Duncan Smith called on the government to follow the steps of the United States and sanction senior officials in Hong Kong.

Lai, 76, has been held in solitary confinement. According to the British government, Hong Kong authorities have insisted that the Hong Kong resident is a Chinese citizen, although he never held a Chinese passport, and that the British Consulate is barred from providing assistance.

During his meeting with Xi on Monday, Starmer said he was pleased that Lammy had met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, recently and “discussed respective concerns, including human rights and parliamentary sanctions, Taiwan, South China Sea and our shared interest in Hong Kong.“

“We are concerned by reports of Jimmy Lai’s deterioration [of] health in prison,” he said.

Upon the mention of Lai, British journalists were ushered out of the room by Chinese officials.

Responding to questions from Parliament members at a debate on Nov. 19, FCDO minister Anneliese Dodds said the government “will continue to call on the Hong Kong authorities to end their politically motivated prosecution and release Jimmy Lai immediately” and “press for consular access and, indeed, exert pressure in relation to the other human rights issues that are of such concern to everyone in the House.”

Embassy

Starmer also drew criticism over China’s planning application for a new embassy in London.

He mentioned the issue with Xi during the bilateral meeting, telling the Chinese leader, “You raised the Chinese Embassy building in London where we spoke on the telephone, and we have since taken action by calling in that application. Now, we have to follow the legal process and timeline.”

China’s plan to turn the site of the old Royal Mint into the largest diplomatic base in the United Kingdom was previously derailed after local councillors rejected the planning permission in December 2022.

The rejection followed a series of protests and incidents involving Chinese diplomatic sites leading to local concerns.

After the rejection was upheld by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the embassy didn’t submit an appeal last year and blamed the Conservative government for failing to intervene as the deadline elapsed.

However, it submitted a new application in July, days after Labour won the general election.

As the application has been called in, a government-appointed inspector will hold a public inquiry into the proposal and make recommendations to Housing and Communities ministers, who will then make a decision on the case.

After Starmer’s meeting with Xi, shadow minister for national security Alicia Kearns accused the government of prioritising the embassy “at the request of Xi” and asked why the government had intervened in the embassy case.

In response, Dodds, the FCDO minister, said it’s “standard for applications to be called in if they affect other governments” and that the call-in “should not be taken as any indication of our views on the merits of the scheme.”

In an email to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said, “Applications for a new Chinese embassy in Tower Hamlets have been called in for Ministers to decide. A final decision will be made in due course.”