As he left for China to reset Britain’s diplomacy with China, many people and organizations implored British Foreign Secretary David Lammy to also and more importantly register Britain’s protests against how the Chinese government treats people.
The internal victims of China include but are not limited to all or most of the Chinese people, but especially the Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, Tibetans, Hongkongers, members of Falun Gong, Buddhists, Christians, and anyone in China who speaks in favor of freedom and democracy and against the Chinese Communist Party and its many crimes. These crimes include but are not limited to censorship, surveillance, imprisonment, torture, rape, forced organ harvesting, and murder.
The external victims of China include but are not limited to Taiwan, various countries sharing the South China Sea, and Chinese nationals living overseas who are targeted by China.
Did Lammy do it?
David Lammy has done it. Privately, before segueing to questions of trade and resetting the relationship, David Lammy conveyed the UK’s complaints to his diplomatic counterparts about the way the Chinese government has systematically and viciously abused so many people inside and outside of China (or did he?).
And he said (or did he?) that if nothing is remedied, Britain would…would…would what? It would have to be the kind of thing that Lammy could report publicly, something that already has the approval in principle of the Starmer government.
Here is what Lammy has been saying publicly about what he has been saying privately during his recent mission to China:
Neither the United Kingdom nor China “has an interest in escalation or greater instability. As fellow permanent members of the UN Security Council, we hold special obligations to the global community to show the world that diplomacy can and does work. To show that countries such as ours, with different histories and outlooks, still find pragmatic [unprincipled] solutions to complex [carefully obfuscated] challenges.”
And:
“I believe that what we need is more diplomacy, not less. That’s why it is so important to be here as a UK Foreign Secretary and to keep coming back. And of course I was able to have dialogue with the Chinese on areas where we disagree. Areas like Hong Kong, areas like Taiwan, areas like human rights in Xinjiang. We were able to have those conversations and raise difficult and challenging issues.”
What difficult issues? What dialogue?
The important thing, though, is how important it is for persons of a foreign secretary type to continue the diplomacy and sturdy up the relationship with China. Also, and this is also very important, China would never escalate! Nor do anything to disturb stability. Like the UK, China has no interest in that sort of thing….
Very, very productive
Somebody named Ray Addison on “The World Today”: “Well, it seems like it was a very, very productive meeting,” Addison adulated. “[Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi] was saying that China wants a relationship that is based on mutual understanding and respect for each other’s concerns. And neither country, he said, should interfere in each other’s internal affairs. And on that basis, China has agreed to restore dialogue and cooperation mechanisms.”
Addison’s appearance on the BBC program “The World Today” is featured at the YouTube channel of the China Global Television Network.
What is the More Diplomacy for?
Seems like: to appease China, make sure China knows that Great Britain under the current government isn’t going to pose any particular problem for China. When China emits friendly noises after such a bout of diplomacy, albeit not omitting an admonition against “interfering in internal affairs” (such affairs as listed above in the second and third paragraphs), this is a sign that a meeting has been very, very productive. For China. And maybe for the Starmer government, as long as its vista does not extend beyond the day after tomorrow.
If Lammy did in fact issue detailed public criticism of the Chinese government regarding how it treats people inside and outside of its borders, the statement must have flown under the radar. What is visible so far from Britain’s new Labour government continues to be Walz-style concern and accommodation. Muted, abstract concern, eager accommodation.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: “Tim Walz, the Communist Anticommunist”
StopTheChinazis.org: “Comer’s House Oversight Committee Subpoenas DHS for CCP–Walz Documents
