China: Human Rights and Security

Lord Rogan Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rogan (UUP)]

My Lords, I refer to my interests as set out in the register, including as co-chair of the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group. I thank my friend, the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for securing this very important debate and for giving a remarkable speech this afternoon.

China is back in the headlines once again, and, true to form, not for good reasons. The relationship between Prince Andrew and an individual spying for China has grabbed the headlines. However, much more important is the fact that Yang Tengbo is one of tens of thousands of members of the United Front Work Department, which Chairman Mao famously described as one of the three “magic weapons” of the Chinese Communist Party. Despite its somewhat innocuous name, the UFWD is a deeply sinister organisation that specialises in clandestine activities to advance the Chinese Communist Party’s interests at home and abroad.

The UFWD is believed to have significantly expanded its activities under President Xi. This is the same President Xi whose hand our own Prime Minister was so keen to shake last month. However, it seems that Sir Keir Starmer’s charm offensive on behalf of our United Kingdom Government is only the beginning, with at least three senior Ministers set to travel to China early next year, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer. As a consequence of these trips, it has been reported that the Government’s planned review of Sino-UK relations has been placed on ice.

In the meantime, Beijing continues to bully, harass and threaten the peace-loving people of Taiwan, in full public view. As we know, President Xi has reportedly pledged to achieve what he has described as reunification with Taiwan, despite China never having controlled it. As the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, said, hardly a day goes by without Chinese fighter jets and military vessels encroaching on Taiwanese space. In recent days, a stop-over in Hawaii by the Taiwanese President prompted Beijing to deploy its largest navy fleet in nearly three decades to waters near Taiwan. While some may put this down to mere scaremongering, there is a view among US defence experts that China is readying itself to seize Taiwan by military force in 2027. I find it baffling that the United Kingdom Government—a new United Kingdom Government—maintain their refusal to recognise Taiwan as an independent state and establish diplomatic relations.

I have been a businessman all my life, and I understand the need for economic growth to get our country back on a firm footing. I can even accept that, sometimes in business, you have to deal with people whose view of the world is a little different from your own. However, I will not accept what seems to be the Government’s view: that the only way to attract much-needed inward investment is to bow down to an authoritarian regime in Beijing. As the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester said, one should not do business at any price.

Earlier this week, in another place, the Security Minister, Dan Jarvis, said that the foreign influence registration scheme, or FIRS, which is designed to protect the UK from covert foreign influence, will not come into force this year as originally planned but will instead be introduced at some point next summer. In the light of what we are learning almost every day about Chinese espionage in this country, I ask the Minister what plausible reason there could be for this delay. I trust it was not a fear that it might upset Xi and those who sign the cheques. Can the Minister give us a guarantee that, when the FIRS finally comes into force, and should China not be placed in the advanced tier—which it certainly should be—she will return to this House to explain why?

I do not accept that His Majesty’s Government are being duplicitous in dealing with China—I want to make that clear. But I believe that they are being incredibly naive, with consequences that could be profoundly serious for our nation.