LONDON: The Chinese Ambassador to the UK has been banned from attending the event in the country’s parliament because Beijing imposed sanctions earlier this year to members of parliament which highlighted alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang.
China imposed sanctions on nine English politicians, lawyers and academics in March for disseminating what he said “located and disinformed” for the treatment of Uighur Muslims in the country.
Lindsay Hoyle, speaker from the House of Commons, and John McCall, the House of Lords speaker, stepped in to prevent Zheng Zeguang from speaking at an event in Parliament.
“I regularly hold a meeting with ambassadors around the world to establish a lasting relationship between countries and members of parliament,” Hoyle said.
“But I don’t feel appropriate for the Ambassador to China to meet in the Estate Commons and at our workplace when the country has imposed sanctions on our members.” Hoyle said he did not ban Chinese ambassadors permanently, but only while sanctions remained.
Richard Graham, chairman of the Chinese parliament group, has given an invitation to Zeguang during the summer, said Daily Telegraph.
Graham and the Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a comment request.
The China Parliament group All Party refused to comment.
Chinese parallel sanctions gave a sanction of five members of the British parliament, including former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith and Tom Tugendhat, Chair of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee.
The targeted individuals and family members near them are prohibited from entering the Chinese territory and citizens and Chinese institutions are prohibited from doing business with them.
China imposed sanctions after Britain, the United States, the European Union and Canada imposed parallel sanctions on senior Chinese officials accused of internment of Uighurg mass in Xinjiang.
The Loughton team, a conservative politician targeted by sanctions, welcomed the decision to train the ambassador from the event.
He said China could not think “they can turn off a free speech by parliament in democracy”.
At that time, sanctions were imposed, England condemned the move as an effort by Beijing to strangle criticism, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was standing in solidarity with those affected by solidarity.
London and Beijing have been traded with angry words of various problems, including Chinese reforms in the former Hong Kong British colonies and Chinese trade policies.
Activists and UN rights experts say at least one million Muslims have been detained in camps in Xinjiang.
Activists and several Western politicians accused China using torture, forced labor and sterilization.
China has repeatedly denied all allegations of harassment and said its camps offer vocational training and needed to fight extremism.