Sir Ian Duncan Smith calls for arrest of Xinjiang governor
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Former Tory leader Sir Ian Duncan Smith has said the Governor of Xinjiang should be arrested if he comes to Britain. Erkin Tuniyaz may travel to the UK next week and could meet Foreign Office directors at an undisclosed location and not at its King Charles Street HQ.
The Foreign Office was this week widely condemned by MPs for entertaining the idea of talks with the governor given China‘s treatment of the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. This includes allegations of forcibly sterilising women and of putting children in “concentration camps”.
Sir Ian said: “I think this [visit] is a really bad idea. The Foreign Office’s weasel words [are] that they didn’t invite him, but of course they knew through their embassy that he was coming and because he’s not sanctioned, inexplicably – he’s sanctioned by the Americans so he wouldn’t have been able to go to America – he’s able to come on in.”
The Tory MP claimed Mr Tuniyaz will be entering Britain using a diplomatic passport which he has no right to as he is not a registered diplomat.
Sir Ian continued: “So the British Government is going to give, I believe, … a propaganda coup. This is all about being able to go round the world saying, ‘It’s alright. We’re okay, nothing is happening’.
“But the truth is it will be propaganda. That’s what they’re all after. They’re busy using slave labour to manufacture goods that we’re using here in the UK and they’ve got a million people now in forced labour camps. They’ve got – very well documented – the rape and systematic sterilisation of women and the little kids are now in re-education camps.
“This was happening in Tibet before. There’s a quarter of a million Tibetans that are in forced labour camps and the man that created this system is Chen Quanguo, who was this man, Erkin Tuniyaz’s boss that he’s now taken over from. He was there throughout the whole process.”
Sir Ian said a lot of European countries, including Holland, will not see Mr Tuniyaz individually.
He told the BBC: “What I want to happen now, is for the Foreign Office to say, ‘No, we will not see him when he comes’. I would like us to sanction him. America has sanctioned 10 people who are responsible for this terrible, murderous policy in Xinjiang. Britain has sanctioned only three and not the most senior ones… They’ve had much tougher policy from elsewhere.”
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The Tory grandee said there is an attempt to bring a private prosecution against Mr Tuniyaz which the Attorney General, Victoria Prentis KC MP, who has to approve such a move.
Sir Ian said: “I would call on the Attorney to think very carefully about allowing that private prosecution to come through in which case, if this man lands, he will be detained pending prosecutions considering crimes against humanity, which the UN said China was guilty.”
Asked if he wanted Mr Tuniyaz to be arrested, Sir Ian said: “Yes, I do. I have written a letter, amongst a cross-party group of MPs, to say that should he touch UK soil, he should be detained pending investigations concerning crimes against humanity.”
He claimed the West has turned a “pretty casual” blind eye against abuses in Xinjiang as well as in Hong Kong.
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On what he would advise Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Sir Ian said: “It’s not personal. It’s not about him personally. It’s about government policy generally, of which he is clearly in overall charge.
“My view is that China understands strength. It always reacted to strength, and they kick you around if you appear to be ambivalent or weak. Look at the way the Americans, right now, are dealing with them.
“In a way, they have sanctioned far more people in Hong Kong. They have sanctioned far more people and done far more economic sanctions in Xinjiang as well so the reality is, right now, we have got to start being much tougher on China to say, ‘If you want to be part of the free market, if you want to be treated by the rest of the world as a partner, then you have to start abiding by the standard laws and responsibilities that come with that, including full human rights. They are at the moment practicing slave labour, a thing we thought we hadn’t seen since the ending of the Second World War.
“This requires us to lead on this. Many European countries would take that lead, by the way, if we were to step forward on it.”
Isabel Hilton, founder of the non-profit organisation, China Dialogue, told the BBC China is trying to repair its image after a “terrible” battering in the last three years over Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Beijing’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
She added: “I think China’s very sensible of the fact that its image has suffered and it frankly needs investment after three years of lockdown. It’s trying to repair the picture of China as a friendly place to invest and a good diplomatic neighbour – that’s what this visit is about.”
The China expert said Beijing has sent a series of diplomatic missions at all levels in the last few weeks since lockdown was lifted in the country.
She said: “This is just a big charm offensive going on. This is perhaps the more extreme end of the charm offensive, but if China is looking to improve its image it has to explain the most contentious parts of its policy and this is certainly the most contentious.”
Ms Hilton said Mr Tuniyaz will contest accounts of the forced labour camps, but his visit will give the Foreign Office a chance to challenge China’s narrative they are part of its efforts to tackle terrorism.
Foreign Office minister Leo Docherty, answering an urgent question on Thursday, said: “We understand from the Chinese embassy that the governor of Xinjiang may visit the UK next week.
“To be very clear – he has not been invited by the UK Government or by the FCDO and we have no confirmation that he will in fact travel.
“Our expectation is that he will be travelling on a diplomatic passport, and has not yet been granted, therefore, a visa.
“If he does visit, I can assure this House that under no circumstances will he be dignified with a ministerial meeting.”
Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “I’m afraid, minister, this just simply is not good enough.
“In Xinjiang women are being forcibly sterilised, children are in concentration camps, there are forced labour camps and systemic rape, yet the minister has just confirmed from the despatch box that ministers approved of this visit to one of the masterminds of this genocide.”
Ms Kearns added: “There is no legitimate reason to allow this man, Erkin Tuniyaz, into our country. (The) only meetings with him should be in a courtroom. So will the Government now sanction him?”
Mr Docherty went on to tell MPs: “This individual will not be invited into King’s Charles Street at the FCDO; this would be, I think, an external meeting if indeed it took place.”
Liberal Democrat former minister Alistair Carmichael shot back: “Well, that’ll really show him, won’t it?
“There’s really only one reason for having a meeting like this and it’s to keep that man talking until the rozzers arrive with a stout pair of handcuffs.”
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