Thread by @allthecitizens

£687m of UK Covid19 contracts going to Chinese government-linked companies? As they say in China, Hǎo yùn (Great Fortune)! @allthecitizens have found 10 companies with clear links to the Chinese gov that won 29 PPE, ventilator or testing supplies contracts. THREAD >

These 10 are part of at least 35 companies issued 89 major UK PPE government contracts, totalling some £1.7 bn (£ 1,736,822,353), either based in China or have strong links to the country.

In October 2020, The Daily Telegraph reported that Britain had bought PPE worth £320m from firms linked to Chinese regime. Our £687m figures are more than double that. telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/…

The China National Pharmaceutical Foreign Trade Corporation (aka (Sinopharm Foreign Trade) won at least 11 UK Covid 19 contracts worth almost £75m. It’s state-owned.

Many of the contracts to CNPFTC (and other companies) were negotiated by the British Embassy in Beijing. The contracts don’t mention where the PPE was manufactured, nor do they state the price per unit of the items bought or the quantity.

The China National Instruments Import and Export Group, owned by the Chinese state-owned conglomerate China General Technology Group, also won 4 PPE contracts with £147m. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Gen…
Here is one of them: atamis-1928.cloudforce.com/sfc/p/#0O00000…

Beijing Union Glory Investment - a state-owned company run by China National Complete Engineering Corp, which works with the Chinese military - won 2 PPE contracts worth £94m.

Cargo Services Far East Ltd won 3 contracts worth £155m. Owner John Lau Shek Yau served as a committee member for Nanjing City’s People's PCC, a Communist Party political advisory body. Many business people are party members, but are not usually officials. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lau_…

Zhonghong Pulin Medical Product won a £7m PPE contract. According to Baidu, the Chinese-state version of Wikipedia, Zhonghong Pulin is a state-owned limited company and its legal representative is a government employee. baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%AD…
contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f74c4ad…

Beijing Tianxingpuxin Bio-med Sinopharm Holding Co.,Ltd, won part of two contracts worth almost £60 million. It is owned by China National Medicines Co. Yong Liu acts as director of both companies. wsj.com/market-data/qu…

There have been reports of UK companies buying PPE linked to factories which may be using forced labourers from the Chinese minority Uyghur population.The Daily Mail bought PPE linked to Medwell Medical Products, who allegedly use Uyghur forced labour. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-550889…

The UK government has also admitted entering into other contracts for PPE with Medwell Medical. bylinetimes.com/2020/11/05/uk-…

The Telegraph reported on Jan. 7 that China Maheco uses ‘labour services’ from Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), “a paramilitary organisation accused of human rights violations”. They won 4 contracts with DHSC for PPE and ventilators. telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…

It is impossible to know how much of £687m worth of contracts awarded by the UK gov't to Chinese companies may be implicated in human rights abuses. What due diligence the UK government may have applied to these contracts is unknown and contracts are heavily redacted.

China is a net beneficiary of PPE contracts issued by nations struggling to contain the virus. If such contracts are linked to human rights abuses, this may prove salt on a wound. Reports of companies making PPE using forced labour need to be investigated. nytimes.com/2020/07/19/wor…

We call on the British gov't to be more transparent about these contracts, including cost per unit, production origins and protection in terms of ethical purchasing. Here is a list of all contracts we have found with Chinese companies. Please RT.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…