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China and the West

The hon. Gentleman is right to say that technology transfer is a vital part of the relationship, although again, one of the things that surprised me when I visited China was how far ahead the Chinese already are on technology such as carbon capture and storage. We met a collaboration of seven different companies—I think that they are mainly state companies, even though they have different names—that had come together in China to work on CCS. Given the speed at which we are progressing on the issue in the UK, there is a real danger that the Chinese will get the technology up and running before we do, although obviously we should be ensuring that we share that knowledge and information because it is an essential piece of technology. As the hon. Gentleman rightly says, China has coal; it will want to ensure that it provides electricity and it will do that through dirty-coal-fired power stations. We must ensure that CCS technology can be retrofitted to them. There are other things that we could learn from China on climate change. Its stimulus package announced last November involved huge investment of $90 billion a year for two years in high-speed rail. The Maglev technology used there has been mentioned, whereas high-speed rail in the UK is lagging far behind, although it would provide a much lower carbon alternative to domestic flights. The Copenhagen conference is only weeks away. I am pleased that the Prime Minister has decided to attend; it is right that world leaders at the very top should be meeting. I say to the Minister that failure is simply not an option; the issue is far too important. We need to ensure that we get China, the world's biggest polluter, on board. Some human rights issues have already been raised. China is contributing huge amounts of development aid to developing countries, but that is often being used as a way to buy influence. The aid is being used in exchange for access to energy resources. Energy security seems to be driving a huge amount of what the Chinese do. That has resulted in quite a few problems in the international sphere when China has failed to use its influence to prevent human rights abuses—for example, in Sudan. I hope that the Government will continue to pressure China to use the leverage that it has in Sudan to end the support for the militias that are causing such destruction and committing so many awful atrocities in Darfur. It is vital that China, which has huge economic power, also uses its increasing political power. That is why the Government's aim of encouraging China to define its interests more broadly, as outlined in the framework document, is absolutely right. The hon. Member for North Wiltshire spoke about Tibet. I welcome the recent visit by the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the hon. Member for Bury, South (Mr. Lewis), to Tibet and his article on The Guardian website about the general issue of human rights, including the assurance that""This human rights deficit features prominently in our dialogue with China."" It is important that while we recognise the economic and political power that China has, there remains a variety of issues on which its record is, from a civilised society's point of view, unacceptable. We need to ensure that we—delicately and with the required balance—continue to raise those issues and encourage China to move.