It can be a little dizzying to survey the abrupt shifts in Britain’s relationship with China. It is less than eight years since the then chancellor, George Osborne, touted a “golden era” of closer ties, becoming the first serving cabinet minister to visit Xinjiang.
That region is now synonymous with the persecution of Uyghurs and other minorities, its vast network of camps a modern-day gulag archipelago. The widely documented atrocities meted out include torture and forced sterilisation. Last month parliament warned that Beijing poses not just a commercial challenge, but an “existential threat” to our democracy.
