Councillors in Newcastle, United Kingdom, on Wednesday voted unanimously to cut ties with the city’s Chinese twin city Taiyuan over human rights abuses in the communist country.
It’s the first decoupling of Western and Chinese twin cities after 19 Hong Kong diasporic groups launched a global campaign in July calling on more than 100 cities in seven countries to sever ties with their Chinese counterparts.
The Newcastle motion (pdf), proposed by Liberal Democrat Councillor Wendy Taylor, said the council will terminate Newcastle’s sister city agreement with Taiyuan.
It condemns the Chinese regime’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims and human rights activists, and expresses solidarity with those campaigning for freedom and democracy in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau….