The United Kingdom has warned Communist China it will face sanctions if they send weapons to Russia to aid in the invasion of Ukraine.
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said on Wednesday that Beijing (Peking) — which has so far attempted to appear somewhat neutral in the ongoing conflict — will face similar consequences to Belarus should it aid in the Russian war effort.
“We’ve sanctioned Belarus right alongside Russia precisely because they basically said feel free to park your tanks on our lawn. That is just not acceptable,” she said in comments reported by The Sun.
“Anyone who wants to support the outrageous and illegal invasion of a democratic nation needs to be cognizant of what they’re doing and the impacts that is going to have elsewhere.”
“China are clearly sitting and considering and watching. I would think economics is always going to be critically important to [Chinese dictator Xi Jingping] and his balance of trade with the U.S. and with Europe is critical to him.
“So I would hope very much that he wouldn’t think that arming the Russians was the right solution,” she suggested.
Nevertheless, the International Trade Secretary downplayed the idea of decoupling the British economy from Communist China, with whom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been attempting to strike a post-Brexit trade deal despite objections from within his own party.
“There are those who say that we shouldn’t trade with China in a general sense. I think that’s the wrong way around,” Trevelyan said.
“I think they are an important trading partner and we want the opportunity to have more trade with China for non-strategic areas of business, which we can continue to grow.
“So, I hope that Xi is listening and that he values the economic relationship that he has with the major economies the world, of which we are one.”
The threats against the communist regime in Beijing, came as the British government has announced another round of sanctions on Russia, targetting 65 entities and individuals, taking the total sanction count to over 1,000 people and businesses.
Notably, Britain has targetted Russia’s main producer of drones, the defence company Kronshtadt, as well as Russian Railways. The Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary group that has been alleged to be serving as hired assassins attempting to kill Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, was also listed in the latest sanctions.
Polina Kovaleva, the step-daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergeĭ Lavrov, was included in the sanction list as well.
Commenting, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Thursday: “These oligarchs, businesses, and hired thugs are complicit in the murder of innocent civilians and it is right that they pay the price. Putin should be under no illusions – we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine. There will be no let-up.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for his part, has suggested that the West should go further, claiming that Putin has already “crossed a red line”. He called, therefore, to target Russia’s international gold reserves on top of the freezing of Russia’s foreign currency holdings.
The Kremlin has branded Johnson as “the most active participant in the race to be anti-Russian”.
It remains to be seen if Johnson will apply the same vigour towards the Chinese Communist Party, however, having personally branded himself as a Sinophile and worked hard to curry favour with the Beijing regime — along with other senior Tories — as Mayor of London.
A big test on the British government’s stance towards Beijing will come later this month when an amendment to the Health and Social C0are Bill banning Britain from purchasing medical equipment and supplies from the Xinjiang region will be put before the House of Commons.
Both major parties in Parliament have seemingly come to an agreement on sanctioning China for its human rights abuses in Xinjiang, where millions of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have reportedly been interned in concentration camps and subjected to torture, sterilisation, forced abortions, and modern slavery.
Yet despite the Commons unanimously voting in favour of declaring a genocide is being committed against the Uyghurs, members of Johnson’s government abstained in an apparent attempt to mollify the CCP.
Ministers from the government wheedled that a declaration of genocide should come from a court rather than a political body.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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