The sword points to the Chinese Communist Party! British Foreign Secretary: should not talk about free trade with countries that violate human rights

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Britain should not engage in free trade with countries that violate human rights. Pictured is British Foreign Secretary Raab.

After saying last week that he would impose new rules on British companies to prevent products linked to China’s Xinjiang region from entering their supply chains, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in an interview on 17 May that Britain should not engage in free trade with countries that violate human rights.

Reuters reported that Raab said last week that Britain would introduce new rules to ban goods produced by forced labor in China’s Xinjiang province from entering the supply chain of British companies. Some British lawmakers want to go further, and are scheduled to consider a proposal in the House of Lords that would give courts the power to stop free trade agreements with countries they believe are committing genocide.

Raab told the BBC on 17 May that Britain should not engage in free trade with countries that violate human rights.

The AFP report analyzed the remarks as an implicit criticism of the European Union’s finalization in principle of a comprehensive investment agreement with China (Communist Party of China) last month.

In response to a proposal by MPs that a British court should decide whether a trading partner country has committed genocide, Raab said that political issues should not be entrusted to the courts, but should be asked by MPs to be done by the government, and we are absolutely happy to accept it.

Speaking to Congress last week, Rab said the United Nations estimates that at least one million Uighurs are being held in so-called re-education camps in Xinjiang, and that there is evidence that Uighur Muslims are being subjected to forced labor.

He said it was a “truly horrific act of barbarism” and that Britain would not support any human rights violations.

The UK is reportedly considering imposing Magnitsky Act sanctions on five Chinese Communist Party officials involved in human rights abuses. Two select committees of the British House of Commons are investigating the issue of forced labor in Xinjiang.