Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hasn’t challenged the China-sponsored arrest of a British citizen because he fears it would ‘make it worse’, a Tory MP has claimed.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith said Mr Sunak told him he hadn’t taken a tougher stance towards the imprisonment of British citizen Jimmy Lai, 75, because he thought it would only ‘make it worse’.
But Sir Iain claimed it was likely Mr Sunak didn’t want to ‘upset China‘ by taking a harder line against the detention of Mr Lai, who is now trapped in solitary confinement and is likely to ‘die in prison’.
It comes as Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is expected to say isolating China would be a ‘betrayal of our national interest’ and will welcome a more constructive relationship with the country in a speech today.
Speaking at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong’s report launch on Monday, Sir Iain said: ‘I saw the Prime Minister some weeks ago and asked him very specifically why the Government is not pressing the case that they have a British citizen who is being held and not calling for the lateral consular rights that he should have access to.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith said Mr Sunak told him he hadn’t taken a tougher stance towards the imprisonment of British citizen Jimmy Lai, 75, because he thought it would only ‘make it worse’
But Sir Iain claimed it was likely Mr Sunak didn’t want to ‘upset China’ by taking a harder line against the detention of Mr Lai (pictured, centre), who is now trapped in solitary confinement and is likely to ‘die in prison’
‘I was given the answer that it would just make it worse for him. I told Mr Sunak I don’t see how that could happen when Jimmy Lai himself is asking the Government to do that.
‘I fully understand he does have another case coming against him and he will possibly never see the light of day outside of prison again.
‘But he wants the world to know he is a political prisoner because he is a British citizen and he shouldn’t be held on these trumped up charges.’
Founder of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy paper Apple Daily, Mr Lai was critical of the Chinese Communist Party and has been detained at a maximum-security prison where he has been in solitary confinement since 2021.
Sir Iain added: ‘It remains the case that they have got either an excuse or they really believe it will make it worse.
‘If it is the truth then it begs an understanding of why we have British citizenship in the first place.
‘If it isn’t the truth and they just don’t want to upset China, and my leaning is towards that, then they need to be pressed hard about this.’
Mr Lai’s son Sebastien Lai also said it was ’embarrassing’ Mr Sunak and Mr Cleverly hadn’t taken a harder line with his father’s imprisonment and said there was a clear moral case to do so.
Mr Lai’s son Sebastien Lai (right) also said it was ’embarrassing’ Mr Sunak and Mr Cleverly hadn’t taken a harder line with his father’s imprisonment and said there was a clear moral case to do so
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly (pictured) is expected to say isolating China would be a ‘betrayal of our national interest’ and will welcome a more constructive relationship with the country in a speech today
Mr Lai’s son said: ‘My father is a British citizen and the language the UK Government has used about his imprisonment has been in no way close to what America has used for his case and its own citizens.
‘This is embarrassing because they haven’t really called for his release. My father’s case is easy to get behind morally.
‘He is a man who has stood up for the rule of law and freedom of speech for the last 30 years.
‘And as a direct result of that he has been put in jail. The UK Government could really get behind this.’
The Hong Kong APPG’s report is a product of an inquiry which heard written and oral evidence from a range of witnesses including lawyers, journalists and ex-Hong Kong councillors.
It gives a series of recommendations on how the UK Government and private sector should engage with Hong Kong going forward – including the use of ‘targeted sanctions’ against officials complicit in Mr Lai’s detention.
Pictured: Sir Iain Duncan Smith (left) and human rights campaigner Luke de Pulford (right) at the Hong Kong APPG’s launch of its report into press freedom and Mr Lai’s imprisonment
Mr Lai was ‘perp-walked’ from his office in August 2020 and was charged with four offences under China’s draconian National Security Law – one of which included lighting a candle in commemoration of the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989.
He was then sentenced to 20 months in prison and was given a further five years and nine months last December on two separate charges linked to lease violations which have been described as ‘politically motivated’.
Mr Lai is now facing a life sentence on a charge of ‘colluding with foreign powers’ for publishing a newspaper highly critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
The National Security Law was passed by China’s rubber-stamp parliament and bypassed Hong Kong’s legislature in June 2020.
It was widely seen as a reaction to Hong Kong’s tumultuous pro-democracy movement which saw millions protesting against a Bill which would have given the city-state’s judicial system power to extradite suspected criminals to face trial in mainland China.
The NSL criminalised ‘secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces’ and was criticised as being ‘vague’ with the purpose of crushing any dissent against the Chinese Communist Party.
Since the law was introduced, Hong Kong has plummeted from 80th to 148th out of 180 countries and territories evaluated on press freedom, according to NGO Reporters Without Borders.
