The so-called “quiet man” of British politics the former leader of the conservative party, Sir Iain Duncan Smith roared his disapproval at the failure of western diplomacy to challenge both Russia and China in recent years.
At a meeting in parliament of the Freedom Associationchaired by former MEP David Campbell Bannerman, Sir Iain told the packed committee room that the West in particular Europe had consistently failed to challenge presidents Putin and Xi.
In a wide-ranging speech, he set out the views of a growing number of parliamentarians who are worried about the repeated failure of the UK governments to have a clear strategy for dealing with Russia and China.
Initially talking about Russia, Sir Ian, laid out a clear path from the accession of President Putin to the Ukrainian war. He criticised former President Obama and his European allies for failing to take action following the brutal invasion and annexation of parts of Georgia.
He accused those in power of knowing that Georgia was simply incapable of resisting the Kremlin‘s war machine, how could the West “reset the relationship with Russia” and get back to “business as usual”.
Sir Ian told his audience that this supine response, which put the economic needs of western European countries like Germany and Italy in front of pleas of help from President Saakashvili only encouraged President Putin into taking more aggressive military action.
Singling out the former Chancellor, Angela Merkel, Sir Iain said the German Government never though Russia would “renege” in a commercial deal, scrapped nuclear, failed to develop alternatives and gamble their whole energy policy on a stable and friendly Russia which would supply the bulk of their gas requirements.
Citing the 2014 invasion and annexation of the Crimea, he said that yet again the West seemed more concerned with the uninterrupted flow of gas than helping countries on its borders. The one ray of light from these two failures was “…the UK recognised the weakness of the Ukraine’s armed forces, so since 2014/15 the UK has been training them here and in Ukraine – It is this training and professionalism that hasactually provided the nucleus for Ukrainian forces to be able to do what they’ve done much to the horror surprised or Russia.”
Turning to China, Sir Iain, a well-known hawk, criticised successive governments, including the Coalition for putting trade with China ahead of human rights. Singling out the treatment of Tibet and the Uyghurs Muslims in the Xinjiangprovince. He said that Tibet had never been part of China, while the treatment of the Uyghurs amounted to genocide, something that was increasingly being recognised by Parliamentarian.
He detailed how the Communist regime had detained more than one million Uyghurs against their will over the past few years in a large network of what the State calls “re-education camps”, and sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison terms.
Other crimes included, separating parents from their children, rape, forced sterilisation and systematically trying to obliterate the Uyghurs’s unique culture and language.
The 12 million Uyghurs, although Chinese, speak their own language, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations. They make up less than half of the Xinjiang population as recent years have seen a mass migration of Han Chinese (China’s ethnic majority) into Xinjiang, allegedly orchestrated by Beijing to dilute the minority population there.
. “It’s the nature of democracy and freedom that as soon as we emerge into, and more peaceful and calmer times we have tobe reminded about how it can be the other way. And the truth is, it is in fact the free world that is built up China to be this threat, because of our desperate search for cheaper consumer goods… And we should remember any chance that China Would be more reasonable and moderate was ended by the accession of president Xi, a man who is president for life. He sees himself, I am told as a new Mao Zedong, a leader of that ilk and thinks that others from Mao Zedong to him were weak and heading in the wrong direction,” Sir Ian said.
That is why under President Xi’s “…we have see genocide, we have seen the Sino–British agreement trashed, that he’s occupied the South China seas and he’s now militarising them…”.
Concluding his talk Sir Iain, express his concerned for the safety of Taiwan, called on Prime Minister Sunak and President to Biden to support the independent country and to develop a tougher policy towards Beijing.
Taking questions, Sir Iain, called on the Foreign Office to chuck out those Chinese individuals involved in beating a protestor in Manchester, close down the three alleged secret Chinese police stations, saluted the bravery of the Iranian footballer player, for refusing to sing their national anthem, in a sign of support for pro-democracy campaigners and said we should offer them asylum if needed, and acknowledged how the Silk Road 2 project had shifted the outlook of the UK’s key allies in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia and the UAE from the West to East.
ENDS