Chloe Cheung, from The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, has said the British Prime Minister is being naive about China, warning trade talks risk sidelining human rights and national security.
She told GB News: “I absolutely agree that Keir Starmer is kowtowing to the Chinese president, and it’s the wrong decision.”
“I think he is too naive to think that, by kowtowing and pleasing Xi Jinping, he could get whatever he wants. When China trade with you, they never want it to be win, win. They want to win, and they want you to lose.”
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“They want to control you. And they don’t just want to trade with you. They have some sort of political agenda behind it. They want a lot of political advantage from every single deal that they’re doing. What Kier Starmer is doing now in China is giving political bargaining chips to China for free. And that’s a mistake.”
“Starmer is desperate for trade deals because of the cost of living here. He is going to China, begging for trade deals and giving up national security. All of them are bringing burner phones with them. That shows there is a lack of trust from the intelligence group in the UK. Kier Starmer is too naive if he thinks that he doesn’t have to give up national security in order to trade with China.”
On Starmer’s decision to not publicly criticise the incarceration of British-Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai, she said: “He said China is a strategic partner. He mentioned China being the second biggest economy in the world. He didn’t mention human rights in Hong Kong. He didn’t mention Jimmy Lai publicly, who is in solitary confinement. He is a British citizen, 78 years old, sitting in a Hong Kong prison every single day. I find that really gross.”
Ms Cheung has also faced persecution: “The Hong Kong authorities placed a 1 million Hong Kong Dollar bounty on my head in December 2024, accusing me of violating the Hong Kong National Security Law because of what I did in the UK. I advocated for Hong Kong’s freedom. I advocated for freeing political prisoners, including British citizen Jimmy Lai.”
“Hong Kong’s freedom was cracked down because the Chinese Communist Party broke the Sino-British Joint Declaration they signed with the United Kingdom. China loves signing deals that they don’t deliver on. Keir Starmer is naive if he thinks that what China promised this time, they would deliver it. It’s not going to happen.”
