BBC News
A Liberal Democrat MP barred from entering Hong Kong has told the BBC she believes it was to “shut me up and to silence me”.
On Thursday, Wera Hobhouse and her husband traveled to Hong Kong to see their child and kid granddaughter. She was questioned, deported, and detained at the aircraft, but all of that happened.
The MP for Bath claimed she was denied entry because she was one of more than 40 parliamentarians from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China ( IPAC ), which criticizes Beijing’s treatment of human rights.
She stated on Sunday’s BBC Newscast show that she wanted” some solutions” and that she was not particularly “outspoken about China.”
Hobhouse and her husband have been “looking ahead” to seeing their brother, who has resided in Hong Kong, a special operational area of China, since 2019.
While her husband “got processed rather rapidly” and was granted entry, she was taken to a waiting area for five hours before being transferred to a new plane for her.
Hobhouse responded,” Nothing,” when asked by reporter Laura Kuensberg what the authorities had to say about her arrest.
They initially advised them to be calm and to ask only a few issues.
Hobhouse said she was never quite “outspoken about China” in response to the idea that it might be due to her presence with Ipac, which examines Beijing’s human rights record.
She said,” I was just standing up for our principles.”
” It would be awful if China now uses this to scare me and prevent me from speaking out against democracy, rights, and human right.”
That is the last thing that ought to occur, but it is definitely meant to silence me and shut me down.
Hobhouse claimed she had seen a lot of “very worried”” Lawmakers” and that she had been very sympathetic.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has pledged to “raise the matter with Hong Kong and Beijing and” demand an explanation and immediately address the issue.
He added that it would be “unacceptable for an MP to be denied access for just expressing their opinions as a lawmaker.”
The Chinese embassy must be summoned by Lammy, according to Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey, adding that the Chinese government may be permitted to “undermine our politics by intimidating our legislators.”
” Hobhouse said, calling for Lammy to reassure legislators that this is not the way the Chinese communist parties may treat them,” Hobhouse said.
It comes a week after two Labour MPs were denied entry to Israel while on a trip to visit the occupied West Bank.
Hobhouse said,” It is very cold that authoritarian countries is treat us in this way,” adding that the political knowing “in which we allow politicians to enter each other’s countries appeared to be” collapsing.”
She has advised her family members to go to the Chinese embassy for permission to enter Hong Kong, saying they will notice their relatives abroad.
Asked about the timing of the incident in the week the UK government sought to take control of the Chinese-owned British Steel plant in Scunthorpe, Lincs, Hobhouse said she could only speculate.
She advocated for a” clear-eyed” view of what China wants from Britain, stating that “it’s not just soft, friendly interactions.”
They want something from us, they say. They use us, and we must never be arrogant about granting them access to too much, such as our crucial federal system.
The Chinese Embassy has received requests for comment.