Sheffield Council urged to cut ties with Chinese Communist Party over human rights abuses

The group held Tibetan and Hong Kong flags in the Town Hall during the strategy and resources committee meeting yesterday as they presented a petition with more than 150 signatures calling to cut ties.

They said it would send a clear message of protecting human rights and local authorities in Newcastle and Bath de-twinned with China last year.

Speaking in the meeting, a campaigner read out a statement that said: “We the Tibetan residing in Sheffield would like to request Sheffield Council to reconsider and sever its twinning city program with Chinese cities. It’s well known that the CCP has a very poor record in human rights.

“The ongoing self-immolation (suicide) inside Tibet is a big indicator of how repressive the CCP is towards the Tibetan. The self-immolator count stood at 160 right now and it is not just a number. Rather, it shows how much they are deprived of basic human rights.

“The recent policy to send 800,000 Tibetan students aged six to 18 to mandatory Chinese boarding schools across Tibet is a big threat to the very identity of Tibetans. As Chengdu is a city with a large number of Tibetan, the council should definitely think about who they are twinning up with.”

Councillor Terry Fox, leader of the council, said the authority was working on a report about its relationships with international cities and the campaigners’ comments would be fed into that. He said they were also meeting with local councillors to discuss the issue soon.