“Newcastle Stands with Hong Kong”, a local Hong Kong student-led concern, initiated the Global Detwin with China campaign together with 18 Hong Kong activist groups this summer.
Council Notes:
That Newcastle City Council is currently twinned with Taiyuan in China
That “Newcastle Stands with Hong Kong”, a local Hong Kong student-led concern, initiated the Global Detwin with China campaign together with 18 Hong Kong activist groups this summer.
That this global joint campaign was co-launched by 163 cities across 7 countries in Asia, America, Europe, and Oceania and calls for the termination of sister city relationships with China.
That Wakefield and Newport Councils have passed motions to end twinning relationships with China.
The Chinese Communist regime’s actions repeatedly demonstrate that it is not concerned with upholding the universal values we safeguard and adhering to international rules of conduct for example: -
- It is widely reported and well documented that at least a million Uyghurs have been forcible detained in so called “re-education” camps in China.
- Survivors who have escaped have talked about their experience which include internment, rape, torture, forced sterilisation.
- There have been reports of organ harvesting against Uyghurs by the Chinese government, with evidence presented to the UN Human Rights Council
- A number of Uyghurs have submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court calling for an investigation for Crimes of Genocide & Crimes Against Humanity.
That Newcastle University’s academic Dr Jo Finley was sanctioned by China last year for her research and activism on the Uyghur Muslims. The sanction on Dr Finley poses a serious threat to academic freedom in the UK as there are potential risks of her being extradited to China when travelling abroad.
That Newcastle is a city of Sanctuary and has a proud history of promoting the advancement of human rights and standing in solidarity with those oppressed.
Council Resolves:
- To express condemnation of the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims.
- To give notification that Newcastle City Council will terminate our Sister City agreement with Taiyuan
- To write to Newcastle MPs urging them to lobby the Government for action in relation to the treatment of Uyghur Muslims.”
The motion speaks for itself, but it's basically a matter of safeguarding human rights and aligning with values of freedom and democracy. I pointed out in my speech that China’s rise since the 1980’s has been remarkable, raising millions of its citizens out of poverty , but at the same time the Chinese Communist regime’s actions repeatedly demonstrate that it is not concerned with upholding the universal values we safeguard and that China refuses to adhere to international rules of conduct.