Chinese Whispers: will Truss declare a genocide in Xinjiang?

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🗓️ 5 September 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

After a long summer of hustings, Liz Truss has finally been confirmed today as the next leader of the Conservative party. As she gets the keys to Downing Street, she'll finally be able to carry out her vision of Sino-British relations. But what is that vision?

On the latest Chinese Whispers, Cindy Yu speaks to Sam Hogg, editor of the must-read Beijing to Britain newsletter, about what we know about Truss's views on China so far. Will she declare a genocide in Xinjiang? What is an acceptable level of trade with Beijing?

The difficulty for Truss is that she has never had to balance her opinions on China with the wider remit of government (for example, when it comes to the trading relationship that she lambasted her rival Rishi Sunak for pursuing, while at the Treasury). As Sam points out, taking the example of declaring a genocide in Xinjiang (something she has privately expressed support for):

‘When you officially recognise that a genocide is taking place, that puts an onus on the country that has done so to try and actively stop that, using a variety of means (that could be sanctions for example). With that in mind, one can see why it’s a useful campaign pledge, but a difficult policy to carry out once in power’

Then she might be held hostage by China hawks on the backbenches – those MPs like Iain Duncan Smith who have lent her his support, but may want to see her be as vocally sceptical of China in Downing Street as she has been so far. In that case, there could be a vibe similar to how the hardline Brexiteers held previous Conservative prime ministers to ransom on seeing through their visions. ‘She’s made a series of political contracts with various backbenchers about how hawkish she is going to be towards China. And each of these backbenchers will have a limited amount of patience’, Sam points out.

We won't have long to find out as she gets her feet under the desk at No. 10 and, in a couple of months, meets with President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Indonesia.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's crunch time for Liz Truss.
0:01.6	Subscribe in our flash sale to mark the announcement of the new Prime Minister
0:04.5	and get the next 10 weeks of The Spectator in print and online for just one pound.
0:08.9	There's no commitment, you can cancel it any time.
0:11.3	Hurry though, this offer runs for this week only.
0:13.5	Go to wwwpictator.com.uk slash sale.
0:29.6	Hello and welcome to Chinese Whispers with me, Cindy Yu.
0:34.2	Every episode I'll be talking to journalists, experts and long-time China watchers about the latest in Chinese politics, society and more.
0:38.5	There'll be a smattering of history to catch you up on the background knowledge and some context as well. How do the
0:42.9	Chinese see these issues? Britain is about to have a new prime minister. In the last
0:49.2	decade, the UK has gone from the hyper-friendliness of the golden era under David Cameron to
0:53.9	this much more
0:54.5	fractious relationship, in line really with the calling of China's relationship with the West more
0:58.8	generally. So what will Prime Minister Trust bring with her when it comes to the UK's relationship
1:03.3	with China? I'm joined today by Sam Hogg, who's the founder and editor of Beijing to Britain,
1:08.4	an extensive weekly newsletter that updates subscribers
1:11.3	on the latest flashpoint in this bilateral relationship. I'd highly recommend it to listeners.
1:17.0	You can sign up for it just by Googling Beijing to Britain. So Sam, welcome to Chinese whispers.
1:22.4	Let's start by considering where the outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been on China,
1:26.5	because during his premiership,
1:27.6	perhaps the biggest China move was the banning of Huawei from the UK 5G network.
1:31.7	But it feels like he really had to be pressurised into that.
	...

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