(TibetanReview.net, Apr30’24) —Djibouti, strategically located on the Horn of Africa, has been accused of acting as a vassal state of China after it deported a British lawmaker sanctioned by China due to his critical stand on Beijing’s human rights record and his advocacy of the Tibet issue.
Tim Loughton, a Conservative MP, was detained for more than seven hours and barred from entering Djibouti earlier this month, reported bbc.com Apr 29. He had arrived for a 24-hour visit to the country, which included a meeting with the British ambassador.
Mr Loughton, who was subjected to sanctions by China in 2021, has described the experience as “very lonely and frightening”.
“Djibouti is effectively a vassal state of China – what China wants, Djibouti kowtows to and having a troublesome MP who has been sanctioned by China turning up on their doorstep was clearly something they didn’t want to entertain.”
He has said that “it went all very frosty” when his passport was scanned upon arrival and he responded to their query by saying he was a member of parliament.
And he was put on the next available flight out of the country.
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Mr Loughton is co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tibet, established to highlight the Tibet issue and China’s record on human rights abuses there.
In 2019, he introduced the Reciprocal Access Bill in the House of Commons which requires the UK Government to take measures against Chinese officials denying access to Tibet.
He is also a leading member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international cross-party group working towards reform on how democratic countries approach China.
The former minister and member of the home affairs select committee said he will not stand at the next general election after more than 27 years in parliament, the report said.
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Loughton sees China’s hand behind Djibouti’s action as a general trend of its exertion of pressure on countries under its influence.
“This was another example of how the tentacles of the Chinese Communist Government extend far and wide, and their malign influence in sensitive parts of Africa is particularly worrying,” the report quoted Loughton as saying.
“Yet the intimidation of countless others who have dared to speak out against China’s industrial scale human rights abuses and who do not have the platform of an MP raises serious concerns.”
The British prime minister’s official spokesperson has said the foreign office had “provided consular support to Mr Loughton at the time and they have also raised this case with the Djiboutians”.
The spokesperson has added that while the authorities in Djibouti had the right to refuse entry at their own discretion, the UK Government was seeking further information about this specific case.
Loughton was one of five UK MPs sanctioned by China in 2021 for allegedly spreading what it called “lies and disinformation” about the country, angered by their criticism of its abusive rule in Xinjiang and Tibet and its human rights record. The immediate cause was the measures taken by the UK Government over human rights abuses against the Uyghur and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.