Human rights violations in Xinjiang and the government's response: Foreign Secretary's statement
Dominic Raab gave a statement to the House of Commons on the UK government's response to the human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, China.
Mr Speaker, with your permission I would like to update the House on the situation in Xinjiang and the Government’s response.
The evidence of the scale and the severity of the human rights violations being perpetrated in Xinjiang against the Uyghur Muslims is now far-reaching, and it paints a truly harrowing picture.
Violations include the extra-judicial detention of over a million Uyghurs and other minorities in political re-education camps. Extensive and invasive surveillance targeting minorities. Systematic restrictions on Uyghur culture, education and indeed the practice of Islam, and the widespread use of forced labour.
The nature and conditions of detention violate basic standards of human rights, and at their worst amount to torture and inhumane and degrading treatment. Alongside widespread reports of the forced sterilisation of Uyghur women.
These claims are supported now by a large, diverse and growing body of evidence. That includes:
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first hand reports from diplomats who visit Xinjiang, the first hand testimony from victims who have fled the region
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there is satellite imagery showing the scale of the internment camps, the presence of factories inside them, and the destruction of mosques
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and there are also extensive and credible third party reports from NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, with the UN and other international experts also expressing their very serious concerns
In reality, the Chinese authorities’ own publicly-available documents also bear out a very similar picture. They show statistical data on birth control and on security spending and recruitment in Xinjiang. They contain extensive references to coercive social measures, dressed up as poverty alleviation programmes.
There are leaks of classified and internal documents that have shown the guidance on how to run internment camps, lists showing how and why people have been detained. Internment camps, arbitrary detention, political re-education, forced labour, torture and forced sterilisation. All on an industrial scale. It is truly horrific. Barbarism we had hoped lost to another era, being practised today, as we speak, in one of the leading members of the international community.
Mr Speaker, we have a moral duty to respond.
The UK has already played a leading role within the international community in the effort to shine a light on the appalling treatment of the Uyghurs, and to increase diplomatic pressure on China to stop and to remedy its actions.
I have made my concerns over Xinjiang clear directly to China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
We have led international joint statements on Xinjiang in the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee and the UN Human Rights Council. In the Third Committee, we brought the latest statement forward, together with Germany, in October of last year and it was supported by 39 countries.
Now China’s response is to deny, as a matter of fact, that any such human rights violations take place at all. They say it’s lies.
Mr Speaker, if there were any genuine dispute about the evidence, there would be a reasonably straightforward way to clear up any factual misunderstandings.
Of course, China should be given the opportunity to rebut the various reports and claims. But the Chinese government refuses, point blank, to allow the access to Xinjiang required to verify the truth of the matter.
We have repeatedly called for China to allow independent experts and UN officials, including the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, proper access to Xinjiang. Just as we in this country would allow access to our prisons, to our police custody and other parts of the justice system to independent bodies who will hold us to account for the commitments to respect human rights that we have made.
Mr Speaker, China cannot simply refuse all access to those trusted third party bodies who could verify the facts, and at the same time, maintain a position of credible denial.
And while this access is not forthcoming, the UK will continue to support further research to understand the scale and the nature of the human rights violations in Xinjiang.
But we must do more, and we will.
Xinjiang’s position in the international supply chain network means that there is a real risk of businesses and public bodies around the world – whether it’s inadvertently or otherwise – sourcing from suppliers which are complicit in the use of forced labour. Allowing those responsible for these violations to profit, or indeed making a profit themselves by supplying the authorities in Xinjiang.
Mr Speaker, here in the UK, we must take action, to make sure that UK businesses are not part of the supply chains that lead to the gates of the internment camps in Xinjiang. And to make sure that the products of the human rights violations that take place in those camps don’t end up on the shelves of supermarkets that we shop in here at home, week in week out.
We have already engaged with businesses with links to Xinjiang, we’ve encouraged them to conduct appropriate due diligence.
More widely, we have made our commitment to tackling forced labour crystal clear.
And with the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act, the United Kingdom was the first country to require companies by law to report on how they are tackling forced labour in their supply chains.
And today, I can announce a range of new measures to send a clear message that these violations of human rights are unacceptable, and at the same time to safeguard UK businesses and public bodies from any involvement or links with them.
I have been working closely with my Rt Hon Friends the Home Secretary, the Secretary of State for International Trade, and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
And our aim, put simply, is that no company that profits from forced labour in Xinjiang can do business in the UK, and no UK business is involved in their supply chains.
Let me set out the 4 new steps we are now taking. First, today, the FCDO and DIT have issued new, robust and detailed guidance to UK businesses on the specific risks faced by companies with links to Xinjiang and underlining the challenges of conducting effective due diligence there.
A minister-led campaign of business engagement will reinforce the need for UK businesses to take concerted action to address that particular and specific risk.
Second, we are strengthening the operation of the Modern Slavery Act. The Home Office will introduce fines for businesses that do not comply with their transparency obligations.
And the Home Secretary will introduce the necessary legislation, setting out the level of those fines, as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Third, we announced last September that the transparency requirements that apply to UK businesses under the Modern Slavery Act will be extended to the public sector.
The FCDO will now work with the Cabinet Office to provide guidance and support to UK government bodies to exclude suppliers, where there is sufficient evidence of human rights violations in any of their supply chains.
Let me say that we in the United Kingdom – I think rightly – take pride in the overwhelming majority of British businesses that do business, do so with great integrity and professionalism right around the world. That’s their hallmark, it’s part of our USP as a Global Britain. It is precisely because of that, that any company profiting from forced labour will be barred from government procurement in this country.
Fourth, the government will conduct an urgent review of export controls as they apply specifically geographically to the situation in Xinjiang, to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to prevent the export of any goods that could directly or indirectly contribute to human rights violations in that region.
This package put together will help make sure that no British organisations, government or private sector, deliberately or inadvertently, are profiting from or contributing to human rights violations against the Uyghurs or other minorities in Xinjiang.
Of course, I am sure the whole House would accept the overwhelming majority of British businesses wouldn’t dream of it.
Today’s measures will make sure businesses are fully aware of those risks, it will help them to protect themselves, but it will also shine a light and penalise any reckless businesses that don’t take those obligations seriously.
As ever, we act in coordination with our like-minded partners around the world and I welcome the fact that, later today, Foreign Minister Champagne will set out Canada’s approach on these issues.
I know Australia, the US, France, Germany and New Zealand are also considering the approaches they take. We will continue to work with all of our international partners.
But the House should know that in the comprehensive scope of the package I am setting out today, the UK is again setting an example and leading the way.
Mr Speaker, we want a positive and a constructive relationship with China. We will work tirelessly towards that end. But we won’t sacrifice our values or our security.
We will continue to speak up for what is right and we will back up our words with actions. Faithful to our values, determined as a truly Global Britain to be an even stronger force for good in the world, and I commend this statement to the House.