By Tenzin Chokyi 

DHARAMSALA, 10 Jan: UK based Tibetans and Tibetan groups have urged Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the UK, to ensure trade and access to Chinese markets do not take precedence over the rights of the Tibetan people in an open letter before she heads to China to seek economic ties as part of UK’s quest for growth amidst major setbacks at home.

The group’s open letter has emphasised “the historic law point for human rights in Tibet” as China increases its brutal colonial rule over Tibet.  It further said, China “imposes policies that have been criticised by international governments and United Nations experts, including mass displacement and destruction of Tibetan heritage to make way for mega-development projects and policies that might amount to forced labour”.

The UK based Tibet groups -Free Tibet, Tibet Action Institute, Tibet Solidarity, Students for a Free Tibet-UK International Tibet Network and  Volunteer Tibet Advocacy Group UK- have collectively acknowledged the meeting as “ a pivotal step in determining the future relationship between the two new  governments” but it  strongly demanded the UK to “not shy away from pressing Beijing over human rights violations and becoming complicit in them by staying silent”.

The group has stated that failure to take up the Tibet issue during her China trip would mean “ the new Labour government risks returning to the failed Tory policies of the so-called “Golden Era” of the 2010s, when the human rights situation in Tibet sharply deteriorated.”

“This is an opportunity for The Chancellor to show leadership on the world stage rather than placing the UK in isolation from international partners who are on high alert to the threats that Beijing’s policies pose in Tibet and beyond,” the letter added.

According to the BBC, Rachel Reeves is set to fly to China today for a three day visit despite pressures  to cancel the long-planned trip amid the sell-off in the bond markets . The meeting is seen as crucial for the labour party to mitigate the economic turmoil at home. 

A report by The Independent suggested that the price of food and household staples could rise by 20 per cent in the UK given the massive problems with supply chains and trade routes, exacerbated by Brexit.

Since the UK is one of China’s key trading partners, the group pressed that “the Uk retains a crucial influence on Beijing and urged  the chancellor take this “important opportunity to raise Tibet and human rights in the strongest possible terms with the Chinese communist party and requested, the chancellor to meet with representatives of Tibetan groups and members of the Tibetan community upon her return.