Iain Duncan-Smith slams Cleverly's visit to China as UK branded 'not capable' of sanctions

He criticised the Government's policy of "robust pragmatism", unveiled by the oreign Secretary earlier this year.

Sir Iain said the policy is "something straight out of 'Yes Minister'", a British political satire sitcom.

He added: "The Chinese just think we're visiting them as part of the extended empire and that we're just one of those regions who will eventually do homage to China".

On Wednesday, Mr Cleverly met Chinese Vice President Han Zheng at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The Foreign Secretary is also expected to hold talks with his opposite number in China, Wang Yi.

Speaking to GB News, Sir Iain said: "My concern here with this visit, is that it looks to me very much like a visit for a visit's sake.

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"We're not going to really lay the law down about them.

"If we really meant business, we would have started to sanction those officials responsible for these abuses.

"America has done it, Australia has done it.

"We simply dont seam capable of stepping up to that."

He specifically criticised the UK Government for failing to sanction Beijing for the genocide of the Uyghurs.

Sir Iain continued: "Unlike the the US, which has set down some very clear criticisms of the Chinese government, President Xi and the Communist party.

"They have actually sanctioned people responsible for things like the genocide of the Uyghur in Xinjiang, sanctioned people who are responsible for the crackdown in Hong Kong and the trashing of the Sino-British agreement, threatened China and warned them on a whole variety of areas.

"My problem here is that the British Government has not followed suit on most of that.

"For example, we've sanctioned no Chinese official responsible for trashing the Sino-British agreement in Hong Kong."

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"We've sanctioned just three very low level officials in Xinjiang, whereas America has sanctioned 12 of the most senior people."

During the leadership campaign last year, Mr Sunak took a hard line on China, pledging to crack down on the UK's relationship with the country.

But he has since rowed back on this taking a seemingly softened stance on China after he advocated an approach of “robust pragmatism” towards China, in which he described as a “systemic challenge” to the UK.

Before being ousted from office, former PM Liz Truss had pledged to officially designate China as a “threat”.