This article is from the April 2013 issue of Total Politics
Yes, says Fabian Hamilton
Last May, two diplomats from the Chinese embassy turned up in Leeds to visit the local authority. You might not think this very extraordinary, especially in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics. After all, Leeds is a major British city.
The diplomats had come, however, to tell Leeds City Council that it should withdraw from its sponsorship of the Yorkshire International Business Convention because the main speaker was to be His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The council agreed to pull out of the convention because it did not want to put at risk the financial benefit of the Chinese Olympic team’s training facilities in the city. The diplomats had threatened to move to another venue if the council did not comply.
So, is our government too friendly with China? My answer is emphatically ‘yes’. Of course, we need to trade with the world’s largest and most productive manufacturer, a nation which offers cheap, well-organised labour and very good prices. Just take a look at almost any electronic gadget you may possess and it’s probably made in China, so why shouldn’t we be friendly with a country which is home to a fifth of the world’s population?
Over the years of my involvement with Tibet, I have seen the way in which any dissent in China is dealt with. The Tibetan film director Dondup Wangchen was jailed for eight years for making a film in 2008 which was mildly critical of the Beijing Olympic Games. Now his life is in danger owing to the Hepatitis B he has contracted whilst in prison and which has destroyed his health. His wife, Llamo Tso, scared of arrest herself, has become a refugee in India and has therefore been unable to visit her husband in prison.
China may be the workshop of the world, but it has a highly repressive regime. Although millions have been brought out of rural poverty and are doing well in material terms, millions more still live in a state of huge deprivation. However, if they dare to complain they are often arrested, beaten, tried and imprisoned.
There have been thousands of violent demonstrations recorded by the Chinese authorities, but that’s just a small official acknowledgement which hides the real truth that there are many, many more each year which are not recorded, but which are still brutally repressed.
China has without doubt shown that it can achieve a miracle of economic development, and that should be applauded, but what has been the price for this extraordinary advance? While rival countries like India are also growing rapidly, China remains a one-party state with no rule of law or freedom of speech.
In 2006, I visited Taiwan with the foreign affairs committee. Before leaving for Taipei, the committee had a meeting with the Chinese People’s foreign affairs committee in Beijing. Their chairman told us that under no circumstances could we visit Taiwan or there would be “grave consequences for the relationship between the Chinese People’s Republic and the United Kingdom”.
The then foreign secretary received a call from the Chinese foreign minister instructing her to tell us not to leave for Taipei. Margaret Beckett told our then chairman, Mike Gapes, that she could not instruct him and that we must stick to our plan.
So we went to Taiwan, and saw a fully functioning democracy on that crowded island. No wonder the Chinese communist leaders didn’t want us to go – democracy and freedom can work anywhere, China’s current rulers just don’t like it. Needless to say, there were no “grave consequences”.
We must show clearly and firmly that we in the UK support the values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law and that these are fully compatible with economic growth. We also have a duty to support the struggle of the Tibetan people whose culture is being slowly eradicated by the authoritarian Chinese communist regime.
And most of all, the people of China itself surely deserve better: many Chinese citizens must view our close friendship with their government as a betrayal of all that we in the free world stand for.
Fabian Hamilton is Labour MP for Leeds North East and chairs the all-party group on Tibet
No, says Tim Yeo
China is a country full of eye-watering statistics. With a total population of 1.3 billion people and a GDP growth rate last year of 7.8 per cent, albeit down from 9.3 per cent in 2011, it is set to become the largest economy in the world within a generation.
But these statistics contain equally as startling contrasts. It currently has 620 coal-fired power stations but also invested $67.7bn in renewable energy last year.
I am a regular visitor to China, having first travelled there in 1988. It is certainly hideously polluting and will continue to be so, but resource efficiency and sustainable development are now key priorities. Intellectual engagement with the subject of climate change is increasingly apparent – the government officials, academics and business people I meet are much more open about their expanding investment in low-carbon infrastructure than ever before. The UK currently has an opportunity to engage both politically and commercially in this development.
China is a central player in the global response to tackling climate change. The decisions it makes will be vital in keeping temperature rises within acceptable boundaries.
It is clearly in the UK’s interests to engage with and help China accelerate progress on its low-carbon development. There is also a great opportunity to open up large new markets for low-carbon goods and services, such as in renewable energy generation, energy efficiency and low-carbon vehicles.
China’s 12th Five-Year Plan includes ambitious proposals to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 17 per cent by 2015 and to have 15 per cent of its energy come from non-fossil fuels by 2020. It is drafting a new climate law, which is expected to be in place by 2015. An amendment to the constitution of the Communist Party of China highlighting the need to promote ecological progress was approved last November.
Seven provinces and municipalities are developing emissions trading pilots. The energy and climate change committee has a close relationship with the designers of the Guangdong Province system, which will cover a population of 100 million.
The emissions trading pilot projects in China can learn from the EU’s mistakes in order to establish a successful countrywide scheme. The benefits of a system that would be internationally compatible are enormous. If the EU and China, with nearly 2 billion people between them and contributing almost half the world’s GDP, both adopt emissions trading as one of their key responses to climate change, other countries will follow.
If the EU and China can work closely together and adopt other common standards, even form a low-carbon trade bloc for example, we can become the standard setters for the rest of the world.
In the shorter term, closer collaboration between the UK and China on energy projects is clearly beneficial to both countries. Chinese investment in our own nuclear industry would be very welcome at a time when the private financing of new nuclear projects in the UK looks difficult. China itself is planning a rapid growth in its nuclear power sector and any possibility of cost reductions in the building of nuclear power stations would be welcome.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a technology with a clear export potential to China with its heavy coal-dependency. For the UK, the development of CCS expertise is both an environmental imperative and a commercial opportunity.
An open and pragmatic relationship is key to the future. It will be important to continue working better at understanding each other’s relative experience and strengths, as well as our future priorities.
Addressing the threat of climate change and replacing the world’s current dependence on fossil fuels with a high-growth, low-carbon economy is the greatest challenge for the 21st century. The world needs China in particular to avoid locking in high-carbon development during its fast paced urbanisation. The UK must be a friendly partner and I hope having strengthened our links with India, the prime minister’s next stop can be China.
Tim Yeo is Conservative MP for South Suffolk and chairs the energy and climate change committee