Chinese officials ‘prevented from attending queen’s lying in state’

China's official delegation is expected to be barred from attending Britain's Queen Elizabeth II's lying in state ahead of the state funeral, the DPA reported, the Anews said.

A parliamentary source told the PA news agency, commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle will prevent them entering Westminster Hall while seven MPs and peers remain sanctioned by Beijing.

Two sanctioned Tory MPs, Iain Duncan Smith and Tim Loughton, have been raising concerns about the delegation's possible attendance, saying it was "extraordinary" they had received an invitation, the report said.

Hoyle was upholding his position on barring Chinese state officials while the parliamentarians remain sanctioned, the source said, confirming the story first reported by the Politico website.

A House of Commons spokesman said, "We do not comment on security matters," while Hoyle's spokesman also declined to comment.

Britain's King Charles III (L), Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales (2L) and Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex walk behind the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, adorned with a Royal Standard and the Imperial State Crown and pulled by a Gun Carriage of The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, during a procession from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster, in London on September 14, 2022. (AFP)

In a letter to Hoyle earlier this week, Duncan Smith and Loughton, along with crossbench peer David Alton and Labour's Helena Kennedy, warned against giving the delegation access.

The wrote: "We are greatly concerned to hear that the government of China has been invited to attend the state funeral next week, despite other countries - Russia, Belarus and Myanmar - being excluded.”

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"Given that the United Kingdom parliament has voted to recognize the genocide committed by the Chinese government against the Uighur people it is extraordinary that the architects of that genocide should be treated in any more favourable way than those countries who have been barred."

Chinese President Xi Jinping is not scheduled to attend the Westminster Abbey funeral on Monday, instead sending his deputy, Wang Qishan.

China's Xi met Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Uzbekistan on Thursday (Sep 15).

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Last September, Hoyle and his counterpart in the upper chamber, John McFall, blocked Chinese ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, from visiting parliament.

The speaker of the House of Commons argued at the time it would not be "appropriate" for the ambassador to meet at the Commons while seven British parliamentarians remain sanctioned.

Six months earlier, China imposed sanctions on seven parliamentarians, also including Conservative members of parliament (MPs) Tom Tugendhat, Nusrat Ghani and Neil O'Brien.

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They are all vocal critics of Beijing, having spoken out against the treatment of the Uighur people in Xinjiang.

China hit the parliamentarians with sanctions shortly after Britain – along with the U.S., Canada and European Union – placed sanctions on Chinese officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses in the country's autonomous north-west territory.

The government has increasingly signalled a willingness to take a harder line against China and, as foreign secretary, Liz Truss was seen as a key voice pushing for a tougher stance.

Source: anews