North Somerset Labour Party
At our July meeting North Somerset Constituency Labour Party (CLP) members voted to send the motion ‘British Chinese should not live in fear’ — proposed by Yue He Parkinson — to Labour Party Conference in September.
This CLP notes that:
There are no statistics for how many Mainland Chinese are living in the UK. However, we do know that there were 160,700 applications for the Hong Kong British National Overseas (HK BNO) route in the almost 2 years since its introduction on 31 January 2021 up to the end of December 2022. (see https://www.gov.uk/ government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-december-2022/how-many-people-come-to-the-uk-each-year-including-visitors)
This CLP believes that:
Many British Chinese people live in fear of the Chinese government. This fear leads to their self-censorship and undermines their freedom of speech. (see https:// www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3246385/souring-uk-china-relations-mean= my-path-politics-has-been-lonely-one)
This CLP calls on conference:
- to acknowledge the fear experienced by many British Chinese people.
- to recommend that a Labour group be set up to offer care and help to these vulnerable yet neglected groups.
- to recommend that the Labour Party shows sympathy and support for those British Chinese citizens who feel oppressed by the Chinese government.