New Delhi, (Samajweekly) The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has strongly denounced the UK Parliament’s decision to ban China’s Ambassador to the UK from attending its events, and has vowed that it will come up with “necessary responses”, the Global Times reported.
Analysts predicted that the responses may include temporarily terminating or suspending certain exchanges between the two countries, such as the China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue; and meting out necessary reciprocity treatment to UK diplomatic bodies in China.
Speakers of the House of Commons and the House of Lords made the decision to ban Zheng Zeguang, China’s Ambassador to the UK, from attending a summer reception of the All Party Parliamentary China Group, which was scheduled on Wednesday night.
The reason given was that the Chinese side had earlier announced sanctions on seven UK parliamentarians.
The Chinese Embassy in the UK claimed the decision reflects “the narrow and parochial mindset of some individuals in the UK… It is a shortsighted, reckless and cowardly move”.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that China strongly denounces such a move, and will be forced to come up with necessary responses, the Global Times reported.
Zhao said that China’s sanctions on a handful of anti-China parliamentarians of the UK, announced in March, were completely justified and reasonable, adding that China always staunchly pushes back on any words or deeds that hurt China’s core interests, and that it does not tolerate being attacked in this manner.
“This is a rare and hysteric move from the UK, since Beijing and London share established ties. It also reflected the UK’s condescending attitude towards China, which is ‘I can slap whatever sanction on you, but you cannot slap back’,” Zhao Junjie, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of European Studies, told the Global Times.
