BEIJING: British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he had raised human rights concerns at “every single one” of his meetings with top Chinese officials, as he made a state visit to Beijing on Wednesday.
Cleverly, the first UK foreign minister to visit China for five years, held talks with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and met top diplomat Wang Yi.
The foreign office previously said his talking points would include China’s crackdown on freedoms in the former British colony of Hong Kong as well as Beijing’s alleged rights abuses in the Xinjiang and Tibet regions.
“I’ve had a number of conversations with senior representatives of the Chinese government and I have raised human rights in every single one of those meetings,” Cleverly said Wednesday.
“This is an issue that is discussed extensively not just bilaterally, but at the United Nations,” he said.
“I think the Chinese government understand the UK is consistent in our approach... and I will keep raising these issues with (them).”
Beijing’s foreign ministry brushed off questions about the role of human rights in the discussions.
“Hong Kong and Xinjiang are purely China’s internal affairs and brook no interference from other countries,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press briefing.
China last month accused the United Kingdom of giving protection to fugitives after Cleverly blasted the Hong Kong government for offering bounties for information leading to the capture of prominent democracy activists based overseas.
And on Sunday, the state-backed Global Times newspaper set off a domestic online firestorm when it demanded the British Museum “return Chinese cultural relics for free.”
Britain ruled Hong Kong for over 150 years before it was handed over to China in 1997 under an agreement to preserve its unique civic freedoms.
Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the city in 2020 after huge, sometimes violent protests.
China’s ruling Communist Party is also accused of a litany of rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, including mass incarceration and forced labor.
Cleverly has called for a pragmatic and united Western approach to China’s rise, acknowledging the need to partner with Beijing on global issues.
But a critical report by British MPs on Wednesday said London’s line on China lacked clarity and needed a “coordinated, whole-of-government approach.”
The 87-page report by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee also labelled China “a threat to the UK and its interests” and urged London to boost “deterrence diplomacy” to counter threats from Beijing.
Hawkish elements in the United Kingdom’s ruling Conservative party have urged Cleverly to act tougher on China.
Cleverly said Wednesday that “attempts to distil the UK’s relationship with China down to a single word or a soundbite are fundamentally flawed.”
China’s size, influence and complexity mean Britain’s relationship with Beijing will be “complicated and sophisticated,” he said.
“We are clear-eyed about the areas where we have fundamental disagreements with China, and I raise those issues when we meet,” Cleverly added.
“We will pursue a pragmatic working relationship, but that does of course mean raising the issues where we disagree.”
UK foreign secretary says he raised human rights on China visit
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UK foreign secretary says he raised human rights on China visit
- Cleverly, the first UK foreign minister to visit China for five years, held talks with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng
Indian forces kill 30 Maoist rebels, one soldier dead
Another four rebels were killed in a separate clash in the state’s south
NEW DELHI: Indian forces killed at least 30 Maoist rebels Thursday in one of the deadliest jungle clashes since the government ramped up efforts to crush the long-running insurgency.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the decades-long “Naxalite” rebellion, whose members say they are fighting for the rights of marginalized people in India’s resource-rich central regions.
An Indian paramilitary soldier was also killed in one of two separate skirmishes that broke out in central Chhattisgarh state, both of which carried on through the day, according to police.
Bastar Inspector General of Police Sundarraj Pattilingam told AFP that the soldier had been killed during a skirmish that broke out in Bijapur district, where 26 guerrillas had also been killed.
Another four rebels were killed in a separate clash in the state’s south.
Searches at both battle sites saw security forces recovering caches of arms and ammunition from both areas.
“The (Narendra) Modi government is moving forward with a ruthless approach against Naxalites and is adopting a zero tolerance policy against those Naxalites who are not surrendering,” interior minister Amit Shah wrote on social media platform X.
The rebels, known as Naxalites after the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
Shah has repeatedly vowed that India’s government would crush the remnants of the rebellion by the end of March next year.
A crackdown by security forces killed around 287 rebels last year, an overwhelming majority of them in Chhattisgarh, according to government data.
More than 80 Maoists had already been killed so far this year, according to a tally on Sunday by the Press Trust of India news agency.
The Maoists demand land, jobs and a share of the region’s immense natural resources for local residents.
They made inroads in a number of remote communities across India’s east and south, and the movement gained in strength and numbers until the early 2000s.
New Delhi then deployed tens of thousands of troops in a stretch of territory known as the “Red Corridor.”
The conflict has also seen scores of deadly attacks on government forces. A roadside bomb killed at least nine Indian troops in January.
Indian forces killed at least 30 Maoist rebels Thursday in one of the deadliest jungle clashes since the government ramped up efforts to crush the long-running insurgency. (AFP/File)
Putin must stop ‘unnecessary demands’ that prolong war, Zelensky tells EU
- “Sanctions must remain in place until Russia starts withdrawing from our land,” he said
BRUSSELS: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow must stop making “unnecessary demands” that extend the war, calling for sanctions on Russia to remain in place until it begins pulling out of Ukrainian territory.
“Putin must stop making unnecessary demands that only prolong the war and must start fulfilling what he promises the world,” he told EU leaders by video call, according to an official transcript.
“Sanctions must remain in place until Russia starts withdrawing from our land and fully compensates for the damage caused by its aggression.”
UK PM Starmer: We must be ready to react quickly if Ukraine peace deal struck
- “(Our) plans are focusing on keeping the sky safe, the sea safe and the border safe and secure in Ukraine,” Starmer said
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday it was important Britain and its allies were able to react immediately should there be a peace deal struck between Russia and Ukraine.
His comments, made during a visit to a nuclear submarine facility, come on the day military chiefs from dozens of countries meet in Britain to discuss planning for a possible peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
“(Our) plans are focusing on keeping the sky safe, the sea safe and the border safe and secure in Ukraine, and working with the Ukrainians,” Starmer told reporters.
“We’re working at pace because we don’t know if there’ll be a deal. I certainly hope there will be, but if there’s a deal, it’s really important that we’re able to react straight away.”
Georgetown University scholar has been detained by immigration officials, prompting legal fight
- Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University, was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media”
- The deportation effort comes amid legal fights over cases involving a Columbia University international affairs graduate student and a doctor from Lebanon
VIRGINIA: A Georgetown University researcher has been detained by immigration officials, prompting another high-profile legal fight over deportation proceedings against foreign-born visa holders who live in the US
Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University, was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” and determined to be deportable by the Secretary of State’s office, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said late Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The deportation effort comes amid legal fights over cases involving a Columbia University international affairs graduate student and a doctor from Lebanon.
Politico, which first reported on Suri’s case, said that masked agents arrested him outside his home in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night and told him his visa had been revoked, citing a legal filing by his lawyer.
His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an messages seeking further comment Thursday. An online court docket shows that an urgent motion seeking to halt the deportation proceedings was filed Tuesday against the Trump administration.
A Georgetown University webpage identifies Suri as a postdoctoral fellow at Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the university. The university said his areas of interest include religion, violence and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia. The bio said that he earned a doctorate in India while studying efforts to introduce democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq, and he has traveled extensively in conflict zones in several countries.
The university said in a statement Thursday that Suri is an Indian national who was “duly granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention,” the school said. “We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”
The US Customs and Immigration Enforcement detainee locator website lists Suri as being in the custody of immigration officials at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana.
Separately, Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident with no criminal record, was detained earlier this month over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. And Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported over the weekend despite having a US visa.
Ukraine, US teams ready to meet in Saudi Arabia in ‘coming days’: Zelensky
Kyiv, Ukraine: Officials from Ukraine and the United States could meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days for a second round of peace talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday.
“Ukrainian and American teams are ready to meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to continue coordinating steps toward peace,” Zelensky wrote on X.
