Chinese governor from region where human rights abuses take place given green light to visit Britain

The ministers have been accused of delivering a propaganda coup to China over a visit by a controversial official.

The dispute came after news broke that the governor of the country’s Xinjiang region could meet foreign office diplomats in the UK next week.

Conservative MPs criticized Foreign Minister Leo Docherty last night over Erkin Tuniyaz’s visit. A multi-party parliamentary group says the Chinese politician has played a central role in the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in his region.

The House of Commons heard that Tuniyaz could travel to the UK next week and could meet Foreign Office directors, despite the government’s condemnation of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

These include claims of forced female sterilization and sending children to ‘concentration camps’.

“This is a propaganda coup for the Chinese government,” former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith warned Docherty, who had told the House of Commons: “We understand from the Chinese embassy that the governor of Xinjiang may visit the Kingdom United next week.”

“To be very clear, he has not been invited by the UK government.”

He added: “Strong commitment to challenge human rights violations and uphold the rights of the oppressed is at the core of the UK’s diplomatic work.”

Officials would be prepared to offer him a meeting, but only to “make absolutely clear the UK’s abhorrence of its treatment of the Uyghur people.”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith (file photo). The former Tory leader said: “This is a propaganda coup for the Chinese government.” He added: “To be very clear, he has not been invited by the UK government.”

Sir Iain called Docherty’s response “weak” and said it concealed the fact that British officials would welcome Tuniyaz.

‘during his [Tuniyaz’s] custody, more than a million Uyghurs and other people from predominantly Muslim minorities have been detained in Xinjiang,’ it added. “A man who says nothing is wrong is unlikely to be upset if a Foreign Office official says, ‘Now, now, you have to stop this.'”

Alicia Kearns, chair of the Foreign Affairs committee, said: ‘The only meetings with him should be in a courtroom. Deny him a visa or arrest him.’

A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘We maintain diplomatic channels so that we can convey these messages and make our position clear. For now, we believe the correct approach is to personally deliver the message to the governor of Xinjiang.’

The UK has paid £2.3bn to the EU to settle claims it allowed Europe to be flooded with cheap Chinese clothes and shoes. The EU’s anti-fraud office says British customs failed to stop imports by criminal gangs. The case dates back to 2017 and the UK remains liable for any breaches of the law before Brexit.