China

Uyghur Court, Hong Kong Road: Tower Hamlets plans name changes in solidarity


Roads and buildings in an area of London which is the proposed site for the new Chinese embassy could soon be named Tiananmen Square, Uyghur Court, Hong Kong Road and Tibet Hill, after councillors voted to assert “support for the freedom and diversity of our borough”.

In a move that is likely to infuriate the Chinese government, Tower Hamlets council said it welcomes the relocation of the embassy from the West End of London but “we must continue to make clear where our own standards and principles apply”.

The motion was passed after months of campaigning by opposition councillors for the local authority to issue a statement about human rights abuses by China, in light of Beijing’s purchase of the Royal Mint site in the borough for its embassy. The repression of Uighur Muslims is particularly sensitive for Tower Hamlets, which has the highest proportion of Muslim residents (38%) of any borough in the country, according to the latest census.

The motion states: “This council resolves that Tower Hamlets council investigates whether roads or possibly new buildings near the location of the proposed Chinese embassy could be renamed appropriately as acts of solidarity with historic symbols or place names of Chinese significance; for example: Tiananmen Square, Tibet Hill, Uyghur Court, Hong Kong Road and/or “Xiaobo Road” (in memory of Liu Xiaobo Liu).”

Liu, a Nobel laureate and democracy campaigner, died in Chinese custody aged 61 in 2017, having been sentenced to an 11-year jail term for demanding an end to one-party rule.

The motion also notes that the Chinese embassy in the UK has written to a number of schools in the area to explore opportunities for potential collaboration but calls for the nature of this to be ascertained to ensure it reflects the borough’s “proud history of standing up for each other as one community and celebrating our differences”.

The council action comes amid heightened tensions between China and the west. Last year, the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, condemned what he called “gross and egregious” human rights abuses in China’s western Xinjiang region and last week he accused China of breaching the legal deal over the governance of Hong Kong.

The Liberal Democrat councillor Rabina Khan, who seconded the motion, said: “Tower Hamlets has a unique history of welcoming people and at Wednesday’s full council meeting politicians unanimously came together on the amended motion that whilst we welcome the proposed relocation of the Chinese embassy, we also stand up against the CCP’s [Chinese communist party’s] human rights violations.”

In a previous statement to the Guardian, the Chinese embassy in the UK said the new building would be symbol of a “robust relationship” between the countries and that people should “stop using human rights as an excuse to interfere in China’s internal affairs”.



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