Hon Aaron Stonehouse questions the Premier's stance on separating trade with China from human rights concerns, specifically regarding the Uyghur population, and seeks clarification on diplomatic approaches.

AnsweredQoN 1470Legislative Council
Asked
28 November 2019
Portfolio
Leader of the House representing the Premier

QuestionView source ↗

CHINA — TRADE
RELATIONS
1470. Hon AARON STONEHOUSE to the Leader of the House
representing the Premier:
I refer the Premier to the article
on the WAtoday website written by Hamish Hastie and dated 27 November 2018 in
which the Premier is paraphrased as saying that it is important that we keep
any issues we might have with China's human rights record separate from
the multimillion-dollar trade deals we engage in with that country. With the
greatest of respect, I refer the Premier to the Oxford English Dictionary definition of the word ''appeasement'', which I am sure he would
know is a ''policy of pacification by concession''.
(1) Removed from
any context of trade negotiations or profit, will the Premier condemn the mass
detention and mistreatment of the Uyghur population in China's Xinjiang
region?
(2) Will the
Premier explain what he meant by calling for ''the Commonwealth
Government to engage in diplomacy diplomatically'' as reported in
yesterday's WAtoday article, and confirm that this was not a veiled
plea for a policy of appeasement?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
The Premier does not conduct
foreign policy through parliamentary questions.

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