British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy yesterday called for a resumption of dialogue between London and Beijing, urging the two sides to engage in “more diplomacy” as he concluded a rare diplomatic visit to China, in which he said he brought up concerns about Taiwan.
The countries are seeking to reset ties frayed in the past few years by Beijing’s security crackdown in Hong Kong and human rights concerns including in its troubled Xinjiang region.
The new Labour administration in London is under pressure to raise human rights abuses with China, but also maintain ties with a major trading partner.
Photo: AFP
The Guardian last week reported that the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office had asked that a visit by former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) be “deferred” to avoid angering China ahead of Lammy’s trip.
Lammy on Friday met with Chinese officials including Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) in Beijing, before yesterday traveling to Shanghai.
“UK policy in the past under the last government was not consistent and what I’m hearing is that we need consistency in our approach,” he told reporters yesterday.
Lammy said that during his Friday talks with Wang he was “able to have dialogue with the Chinese on areas where we disagree.”
He said he discussed “Hong Kong, areas like Taiwan, areas like human rights in Xinjiang. We were able to have those conversations and raise difficult, challenging issues.”
He added that the UK’s position on Taiwan has not changed under the Labour administration and expressed concern over “some of the tensions that we see in the Taiwan Strait, because that is not in the interests of the global community.”
Sebastien Lai (黎崇恩), the son of jailed Hong Kong democracy activist, media tycoon and British citizen Jimmy Lai (黎智英), told Sky News he hoped Lammy had made it clear that “it is impossible to normalize the relationship if they still have a British national that’s imprisoned for standing up for freedoms that underpin our democracy.”
Jimmy Lai was arrested in 2020 for fraud and involvement in protests and, following delays, is facing trial for sedition and collusion with foreign forces.
“Let’s be clear, there are values, areas where the UK Government and our cultural approach will be different to China’s and there are important areas of national security where we will always put the UK’s national interests first,” Lammy said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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