The Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Zheng Zeguang has been barred from entering the Houses of Parliament in response to the communist dictatorship in Beijing imposing sanctions on UK politicians earlier this year.
On Tuesday, the Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Lord McFall of Alcluith, the Speaker of the House of Lords, made the decision to ban the Chinese Communist Party diplomat after MPs condemned a scheduled meeting of the All Party Parliamentary China Group on Wednesday, which was set to include Mr Zheng.
Campaigners and MPs argued that the Chinese Ambassador shouldn’t be allowed into Parliament while MPs and Peers remain sanctioned by the murderous regime.
Confirming the decision, Sir Lindsay told The Telegraph: “I regularly hold meetings with ambassadors from across the world to establish enduring ties between countries and parliamentarians. But I do not feel it’s appropriate for the ambassador for China to meet on the Commons estate and in our place of work when his country has imposed sanctions against some of our Members.
“If those sanctions were lifted, then of course this would not be an issue. I am not saying the meeting cannot go ahead. I am just saying it cannot take place here while those sanctions remain in place.”
A spokesman for the Lord Speaker added: “The Speakers of both Houses are in agreement that this particular APPG China meeting should take place elsewhere.”
Responding to the move, the founder and chairman of the campaign group Hong Kong Watch, Benedict Rogers told Breitbart London: “The decision by the Speakers of both Houses is courageous, admirable and absolutely right. They have stood up to defend the integrity of Parliament.
“The Chinese Communist Party regime sanctioned five MPs and two members of the House of Lords earlier this year, so it would be outrageous to welcome its ambassador into the very Parliament it has sanctioned.
“I applaud both Speakers and hope this will serve to stiffen the government’s spine in defending our values, interests and security.”
Exclusive Video: UK Parliamentarians Declare China Is Committing Genocide in Xinjiang https://t.co/DhEYOFgVhB
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 23, 2021
One of the ten Britons to be sanctioned by the Chinese regime in March for — as the CCP claimed — “spreading lies” about Xinjiang, former Tory Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith thanked both Speakers for their “swift” action to ban the Chinese diplomat.
“This meeting should never have been proposed on the parliamentary estate in the first place: the mother of parliaments that protects free speech and the liberties of free peoples,” he said.
“It is completely unacceptable that sanctioned MPs would have been expected to tolerate the Chinese ambassador on the parliamentary estate.”
Undeterred by the sanctions, the British parliament voted in April to declare a genocide is occurring in the Xinjiang region of China, where up to 3 million ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, Kazaks, and Kyrgyz people have reportedly been interned in concentration camps, where they face torture, sterilisation, forced abortions, among other human rights atrocities.
The vote to declare genocide was unanimous aside from members of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, using the excuse that only a court should be able to declare genocide. On top of not supporting the genocide declaration, Mr Johnson has reportedly been seeking to deepen trade relations with the communist regime.
In the wake of China’s flagrant violations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong, Sir Iain told Breitbart London at a Hong Konger protest in London in June that he will continue to pressure the Johnson administration to take a stronger line on the CCP.
“There’s always more they can do and they know that because I tell them every single day and I intend to be on their case every single day,” the former Tory leader said.
“Freedom is lost easily when you don’t defend it. As Reagan said, ‘it takes just one generation to get rid of freedom’, and we need to stand by it,” he added.
The Chinese embassy in London, for its part, condemned the decision to ban the ambassador, saying in a statement: “The despicable and cowardly action of certain individuals of the UK Parliament to obstruct normal exchanges and cooperation between China and the UK for personal political gains is against the wishes and harmful to the interests of the peoples of both countries.”
“I would like the G7 to review the whole idea that we can protest a little bit about China’s eradication of freedom and democracy but still rush to them to invest with them and to take their money… move away from the idea of a greedy rush to China” https://t.co/xYOTe8HHhU
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 13, 2021
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