by Admin
Nov 19, 2024
Things took a different turn when Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister took shots at President Xi Jinping of China, the British Prime Minister accused the Chinese President of being a sponsor of Human Rights violations in China after both leaders met at this year’s G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
President Xi who spoke first at the meeting on Monday, exchanged pleasantries with the British prime minister, hailing the cooperation between the two countries and seeking a better trading partnership with Beijing and London, which included trade, investment, clean energy, and financial services.
The conversation went sour when the British prime minister interrupted the Chinese president halfway into his speech and brought up human rights cases of sanctioned lawmakers in Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and the case of former media mogul Jimmy Lai.
While the British Prime Minister was still at his speech, tension grew within the conference room and Chinese officials stood up and ordered British journalists out of the room before Keir Starmer could finish his speech about the human rights cases.
Things became more awkward when the British prime minister’s entourage tried to stop the Chinese officials from ushering the reporters out of the room but the Chinese officials went physical and pushed the British journalist out of the room.
In his speech, the British Prime Minister said, “I’m very pleased that my foreign secretary and Foreign Minister Wang met recently and discussed their respective concerns including human rights and parliamentary sanctions, Taiwan, the South China Sea, and our shared interest in Hong Kong.”
Keir Starmer further said, “We are concerned about reports of Jimmy Lai’s deteriorating health in prison”.
The Chinese officials viewed the British Prime Minister’s reference to Hong Kong and Lai as a very sensitive topic because both territories were former British colonies and in recent years the British government has accused Hong Kong of a legislative security breach for handing over the territory back to China in 1997.
A Hong Kong court on Tuesday morning sentenced dozens of former democracy advocates in Hong Kong’s largest national security trial, a trial which was largely condemned by the largely Western powers including Britain, and the United States, accusing Hong Kong and the Chinese government of politically sabotaging the democratic rights of the Hong Kong people.
The outcome of the trial is evidently likely to further hinder China’s relationship with the Western powers.
However, the Chinese media read out the details of the meeting with the British Prime Minister and his entourage but omitted the reference to Taiwan or human rights allegations made by Keir Starmer which are considered to be the most sensitive topics of discussion.
At the end of the meeting, the British Prime later proposed holding meetings with Premier Li Qiang China’s second-highest ranking official in Beijing or London in early next year, as well as a meeting between Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and Vice Premier He Lifeng to further discuss enhancing economic financial dialog to explore more investment projects.