#BREAKING:

This story is huge - especially coming just weeks after @JamesCleverly's Beijing visit.

🇬🇧 needs to act urgently, robustly and comprehensively.

thetimes.co.uk/article/britis… Quoted in this extraordinary story, alongside my friend @lukedepulford and @ipacglobal and others.

The infiltration and influence campaign by #China's #XiJinping #CCP regime in 🇬🇧 and the free world is way more pervasive and penetrative than we realise, and it's time we woke up

THREAD: People have asked why I am silent about the controversy regarding His Holiness the #DalaiLama, which broke just over a week after I had privilege of an audience with him

I've decided to comment now, in this thread, because of my love for His Holiness and #Tibet/ I have a simple but profound principle - I try never to comment on something unless and until I feel confident that I understand the full picture and context

In our day and age, especially in the West, we're too quick to speak and too slow to think & reflect & try to understand/

THREAD: I want to share a few reflections & principles about why - & how - I try to support #HongKong's #FightForFreedom, have done so for the past 8 years

1. The most important point is that I have never, ever claimed to represent #HongKongers. All I try to do is support / 2. #HongKongers are among the most courageous, intelligent, creative, articulate, eloquent, brilliant people I know, and they're more than capable for speaking for themselves. I don't speak on their behalf, ever - I merely try to speak in support of and solidarity with them/

What an honour. A full page in #HongKong's #CCP Ta Kung Pao

First they deny me entry

Then they send me, my neighbours, mother & employers threats, lobby UK MPs to try to silence me, and send fake emails

Then they threaten me under #NationalSecurityLaw

Now it's Ta Kung Pao :) To break it down, bit by bit, here's the first part :)

My response: if speaking out for the freedoms, democracy, human rights, rule of law & autonomy which #HongKong was promised under an international treaty and which #CCP has betrayed is a crime, then I plead very, very guilty

A huge privilege to be at the totally packed London premiere of @RoOT_film, a profoundly moving & powerful film about #HongKong's #FightForFreedom, & Q&A with the courageous director afterwards

Huge congratulations to @nathanlawkc @HKFF_UK / It was deeply moving to sing Glory to Hong Kong at the end & give the director standing applause along with hundreds of wonderful #HongKongers

This film is banned in #HongKong & I probably committed another #NationalSecurityLaw crime by going to see it, but I highly recommend it

THREAD: Some reflections on @ReginaIplau very kind tribute to my work & that of @hk_watch, which is much appreciated

However:

1. I was denied entry to #HongKong by #CCP in Oct 2017. So if she wants to draw parallels between me & #ChristineLee, perhaps UK should expel Ms Lee? / 2. The parallel, however, is ridiculous. I do not live in #HongKong, I have not influenced anyone in #HK, I have not donated any money to anyone in HK. I have merely expressed opinions & conducted advocacy in support of the wishes of #HongKongers.

In contrast to Ms Lee/

THREAD: A year ago today, the @CPHumanRights launched its major new report on #CCP #China #HumanRights

It is as relevant today as it was a year ago

You can read it here: shorturl.at/jotC7 Watch the discussion at the launch event of the report, with @MPIainDS @nathanlawkc @MahmutRahima @HodgsonFiona and myself …ativepartyhumanrightscommission.co.uk/watch-launch-o…

No surprise, but good that it is coming to light at last

Chinese national trying to improperly influence politicians, says MI5 theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/j… bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

THREAD: Deeply saddened by this news. The world has lost a great man, a giant defender of human rights, freedom, justice, truth and reconciliation.

bbc.co.uk/news/world-afr… I had the privilege of meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and corresponding with him by email several times, especially about #Myanmar/#Burma, which he took a very deep interest in

He wrote the Foreword to my book, "Burma: A Nation At the Crossroads"

THREAD: After a beautiful day celebrating #Christmas in freedom & peace with my family, I received this truly heartbreaking and horrific news from #Myanmar/#Burma

#SaveMyanmar #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

Myanmar: more than 30 people killed in Kayah state theguardian.com/world/2021/dec… reuters.com/world/asia-pac…

Looking forward to Carols from King's College, Cambridge later today: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00… conservativehome.com/video/2021/12/…

THREAD: I am writing this thread on "democratic values", because there is some profound misunderstanding & some utterly stupid wrongheaded thinking around which needs to be knocked on the head. Otherwise we're all in real trouble. / Let me start which two principles:

1. Among us who defend "democratic values" around the world, NO ONE I know wishes to impose anything on anyone;

2. Supporting "democratic values" is NOT about dropping a Westminster-style Parliament or US Congress in the middle of the desert/

THREAD: @AmbZhengZeguang - welcome to UK

I have 10 questions for you

1. Millions of #Uyghurs are in prison camps, women forcibly sterilised, people used for slave labour, horrific torture & sexual violence reported / The evidence is there, & increasingly experts recognise it as genocide. Why are you doing this to Uyghurs & why won't you allow international, independent monitors to visit unrestricted?/

THREAD: Mr Tang: Wrong!

Your quisling government & its #CCP puppet masters are to blame

You, your police officers, your fellow quisling proxy zombies & the dictatorship you slavishly work for are covered in blood, Mr Tang

And in the next tweet in this thread I'll explain why/

https://twitter.com/rthk_enews/status/1410767276555440131

Point by point:

1. If #CCP had kept its promise to allow "one country, two systems" & "#HongKong people running HongKong" & upheld basic freedoms, human rights & rule of law, we would not see the tragedy we see today/

THREAD: Yesterday we commemorated 4 anniversaries:

- 100th birthday of Chinese Communist Party
- 24th anniversary of #HongKong handover
- 1st anniversary of #NationalSecurityLaw
- 1st anniversary of #BNO policy

3 that represent death & destruction, one which offers a lifeline/ So for the four anniversaries, I wrote three op-eds and chaired one webinar

In case you missed them:

1. nypost.com/2021/06/30/on-…

THREAD: Delighted that @ShaunBaileyUK, @Conservatives candidate for #MayorofLondon, has put action in response to the Chinese Communist Party in his manifesto

He promises City Hall sanctions on China until
it stops human rights abuses & sets out how/

See bit.ly/32DfKzz He says:

"China is undermining human
rights in #HongKong through it’s
oppressive national security law and
committing genocide against #Uyghurs
in Xinjiang. I have repeatedly
called for the @MayorofLondon to use
City Hall’s influence to stand up to
China"

THREAD:

Most governments have made mistakes in handling #COVID19

A few - especially #Taiwan - have been exemplary. We should learn from them

But there's one which more than any other is responsible for unleashing this pandemic upon us all: the Chinese Communist Party regime First, they tried to cover up the truth

They repressed the whistleblowers - the doctors and citizen journalists who were trying to alert the world

Then, they failed to inform the WHO & the world in a timely way

Then, they refused offers of help from the United States

So guys: wake up

We need to diversify supply chains

Why are we buying PPE, ventilators, from Chinese Communist Party which gave the world the pandemic in the first place?

First they send us the disease to kill us

Then they sell us - at high price - equipment to protect us? We need to make masks, ventilators, PPE, food, other sources of daily survival ourselves

But also we need to invest in and trade with countries that don't commit mass atrocities, breach international treaties or inflict pandemics on the world

Eg:

#Taiwan, #Japan, #SouthKorea

THREAD: As the Vatican prepares to renew its ridiculous deal with the Chinese Communist Party regime, which has delivered precisely zero for the Church & only entrenched the regime's repression, I remind you what I've been saying for past few years:

1. catholicherald.co.uk/romes-dangerou… 2. catholicherald.co.uk/in-signing-the…

THREAD: I want to say some things about China, Chinese people, the brutal, mendacious Chinese Communist Party regime, & what we should do about it all.

I am conscious that I tweet a lot. But bear with me and follow this thread if you have time.

First: I love China & its people Second, I first went to China aged 18

I began my exploration of the world by teaching English in Qingdao

I studied a Masters in China Studies at @SOAS

I lived in #HongKong for the first 5 years after the handover

I began my adult life in China

ucanews.com/news/a-love-af…