(CB) [V]: My Lords, has the Minister had the
opportunity to watch the video recording I sent her last Wednesday,
which appears to show shackled and blindfolded Uighur Muslims in
China being led from trains to camps? The Board of Deputies
of British Jewshas stated:
“The World will neither forgive nor forget a genocide against the
Uighur people.”
The Foreign Secretary has said that this is,
“reminiscent of something not seen for a long time.”
What progress has the Minister made in pursing my request to ask
British Telecom how it verifies Huawei’s denials of the use of
slave labour or the use of Huawei technology in oppressing Uighur
people?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport () (Con): It
is impossible to have watched the footage to which the noble Lord
referred without a sense of horror and deep concern. As my noble
friend Lord Ahmad said in answer to an earlier Question, the
Government will not look away from human rights abuses in
Xinjiang. We are working actively with the Home Office and the
Public Bill Office to work out what can be within scope for an
amendment on the issues the noble Lord raises about the supply
chain.
(Con): My
Lords, I was privileged to speak recently with Nathan Law, the
Hong Kong democracy campaigner. Given his assertion that
companies such as Huawei serve the interests of the Chinese
Communist Party, and that we know from the footage at the weekend
that that includes the reported use of slave labour in
concentration camps, does my noble friend agree with Marie van
der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of
British Jews that
“The World will neither forgive nor forget a genocide against the
Uighur people”?
What more can we do to stop this genocide?
: We have
been very clear about the level of concern about human rights
abuses of the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province. We have
recently announced important new moves on extradition and arms
sales in relation to Hong Kong, and we continue to be at the
forefront of raising these issues in multilateral organisations,
including the UN Human Rights Council, most recently at the end
of June.
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