China leader who smashed Hong Kong protest heads to coronation
A diplomatic storm has broken out over the ‘outrageous’ representative China is to send to the coronation of King Charles.
A diplomatic storm has broken out over the “outrageous” representative China is to send to the coronation of King Charles.
Han Zheng, China’s Vice-President and the man who oversaw the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019, will represent President Xi Jinping at the May 6 event.
The decision by the Chinese to send Mr Han, who was responsible for Hong Kong affairs from 2018 until March this year, has caused consternation.
Tory grandee Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by China for criticising its human rights record, told London’s Daily Telegraph: “This is the man responsible for trashing the international treaty – the Sino-British accord – in the course of which the Hong Kong authorities have persecuted peaceful democracy campaigners. Having this man here given his role is outrageous.”
In 2020, Boris Johnson’s government allowed three million people from Hong Kong to migrate to Britain because the implementation of the national security law in the territory was a “clear and serious breach” of the 1985 Sino-British joint declaration. Under that agreement, people living in Hong Kong were to have 50 years of various freedoms after China assumed sovereignty in 1997.
Tim Loughton, a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said Mr Han’s attendance at the coronation would be “an insult to the freedom-loving people” of Hong Kong.
Britain has invited all countries it has diplomatic relations with. Russia and North Korea have not been invited.
The rumblings about the China representative come as British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly this week delivered a speech in which he described a “more constructive but robust relationship with China”. He also insisted Britain must remain engaged with Beijing “to tackle humanity’s biggest problems”.
“No significant global problem … can be solved without China,” he said.
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