Rishi Sunak
As His Holiness the Dalai Lama congratulates Rishi Sunak, the new British Prime Minister, we are reminded of the importance of maintaining friendly relations with the leaders of countries who can lend their support to the Tibetan cause. Tibet has been spotlighted in the United Kingdom Parliament a number of times this month, some as a result of the beating of a peaceful protestor outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester, others by supportive Members of Parliament, focusing minds on Tibet and bringing the issue to the attention of the world.
Navenda Mishra MP and Vice Chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet asked, on October 21, “The scenes at the Chinese consulate in Manchester earlier this week were deeply disturbing and the Government response has been weak and entirely unacceptable. Can the Minister outline what tangible steps have been taken to protect the Hong Kong community, TIBETANS and Uyghurs from intimidation, threats and actual use of violence from the Chinese state on UK soil—tangible steps?”
Tim Loughton MP and Co-chair All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, on October 21, “The consul general seems to have forgotten that he was in Manchester, where we allow free speech, rather than LHASA, Hong Kong or Xinjiang, where peaceful demonstration is routinely met by violence from the authorities. … it requires strong action now. That involves chucking out some of these people and posting additional police outside every Chinese Government establishment in this country to make sure that no more peaceful demonstrators are attacked in this way. Many Uyghur and TIBETAN families already feel intimidated; now they can be dragged into Chinese premises and beaten up, or worse”.
Lord David Alton of Liverpool, speaking in the House of Lords on October 18, “It is about the importation of CCP [Chinese Communist Party] brutality, which has so disfigured the lives of the peoples of Hong Kong, Xinjiang, TIBET and Taiwan, and Chinese citizens who have dared to question the tyranny of the one-party state. It is also about the contagious spread of CCP cadres, whether they are intimidating students on our campuses and subverting institutions and even, as our intelligence agency has pointed out, CCP spies working in the precincts of our Parliament.”
Alicia Kearns MP and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, on October 18, “We have seen continued persecution of the Uyghur, TIBETANS, Hong Kongers and all those who come to our country to seek refuge. What took place on Sunday [ie, the Manchester incident] suggests they cannot seek refuge here and have their voices heard, and our job is to make sure their voices are not silenced.”
Iain Duncan Smith MP, on October 11, “It is time we stopped messing around and recognised that China poses a threat to the way we live our lives, and it is time now to treat them in the same way we treat Russia.”
And lastly, Fiona Bruce MP, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, on October 4, speaking at the event Human Rights Implications of the Dalai Lama’s Succession organised by the United States Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, “I want to reiterate the UK’s commitment to working with the United States and with our other international partners to do everything we can to promote and protect the rights of Tibetans. Only by working together will we be able to pressure China to change course and uphold its obligations. I know that we are united in our shared commitment to end the human rights violations currently occurring in Tibet and to stand up for those whose rights there are so unjustly violated, including the right to freedom of religion or belief.”
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