China’s ambassador to the UK has been told he cannot come to Parliament while sanctions remain in place against a number of MPs and peers.
Zheng Zeguang was due to attend a House of Commons reception on Wednesday, hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on China.
But after protests, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Lord Speaker Lord McFall ruled this out.
The decision may provoke a diplomatic row between London and Beijing.
First reported by the Daily Telegraph, it comes at a time when tensions between the two governments are high.
The Chinese ambassador to Britain has been banned from attending an event in the country’s parliament because Beijing imposed sanctions on lawmakers who highlighted human right abuses in Xinjiang.
Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the House of Commons, and John McFall, the speaker of the House of Lords, stepped in to prevent Zheng Zeguang from speaking at an event in parliament.
“The Speakers of both Houses are in agreement that this particular APPG China meeting should take place elsewhere considering the current sanctions against members,” said a spokesperson for the speaker of the House of Lords.
Richard Graham, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary China Group, had given an invitation to Zeguang during the summer, the Daily Telegraph said.
Graham, Hoyle and the All Party Parliamentary China Group were not immediately available for comment.
In March, China imposed travel bans and asset freezes on five MPs and two peers whom it accused of spreading lies about the country.
This was in response to the UK’s decision to impose its first sanctions against Chinese officials for human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Despite this, the China parliamentary group still decided to invite Mr Zheng to its summer party on the Commons terrace pavilion overlooking the Thames.
Last week four of the five Conservative MPs who were sanctioned – Conservatives Iain Duncan-Smith, Tom Tugendhat, Nusrat Ghani and Tim Loughton – wrote to the Speaker voicing their concerns.
The two sanctioned peers – crossbencher Lord Alton and Labour’s Baroness Kennedy – wrote to the Lord Speaker.
They said: “The sanctions imposed by the Chinese government represent an attack not just on members directly targeted but on Parliament, all parliamentarians, select committees, and parliamentary privilege.”
“We should never allow our place of work to become a platform to validate and promote such sanctions,” they added. “We know that this is a view shared by a great many Right Honourable and Honourable Members who will wish their protests to be heard if this visit is to go ahead.”
