Boris Johnson’s Conservatives Are Burning Bridges With China
- U.K. national security bill, Huawei ban risk more antagonism
- Chinese influence operations have contributed to the damage
Xi Jinping during a visit by U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
As a prominent China critic and advocate of Hong Kong’s freedoms, Benedict Rogers is used to unwanted attention. But even he was surprised when he found out that the Chinese embassy in London had attempted to persuade members of the British Parliament to warn him off.
The episode occurred in 2017 when Rogers was deputy chair of the ruling Conservative Party’s human rights commission that he co-founded. According to three separate people familiar with the events, the embassy lobbied Conservative MPs to try and convince Rogers, who is not a lawmaker, to “shut up” about China.