.The big dEE .

8.1.25

LONDON: International democratic rights are less important than national security and the economy, the parliamentary under-secretary of state MP Catherine West said in the Commons on Tuesday.

Responding to an urgent question on China’s persecution of Hong Kong democracy activists living in the UK, West said human and democratic rights are important, but less so than matters of national self interest.

“We are in a position where our economy is quite fragile … we need to sometimes be involved with countries whose values may not align completely with ours … we need to have more import-export and to be pragmatic on the matter of having an economic relationship with our fourth biggest trading partner,” she said.

“We want to be robust on human rights and security, and we are concerned about cyber-security and other aspects of the transnational repression that appears to be growing, but this also has an edge to it, in that we are looking at our own national interest and at where we are exposed economically. This is a difficult thing that we have to do in foreign policy: to look to our own interests, as well as defending our broader human values and human rights,” West added.

Liberal democrat mp David Chadwick had listened carefully to West’s precise language, and picked up on a particular word she had used: “If human rights are paramount, why should we allow our trade balance to determine how we respond to abuses of human rights?” he asked.

“There is a three-legged approach in good foreign policy, with national security first, human rights as our duty, and an eye to our economy, because I do not think any of us wants the continuation of a situation where our economy is at the bottom of the league table, which is how it feels now,” West responded, leaving human and democratic rights firmly in the relegation zone.