- A consultancy Mainelli based is sponsored by a Chinese analysis institute
The Lord Mayor of London heads a enterprise linked to a ‘ruthless’ Chinese politician accused of human rights abuses in Tibet.
The Mail on Sunday final month revealed issues over Professor Michael Mainelli’s hyperlinks to Beijing and his requires a wave of Chinese nationals to be recruited into the City of London’s historic guilds.
Now this newspaper has discovered that Z/Yen, a consultancy Prof Mainelli based, is sponsored by a Chinese analysis institute chaired by Ye Xiaowen, a hardline Communist apparatchik who for greater than a decade oversaw Beijing’s crackdown on followers of Tibet’s exiled Dalai Lama.
Ye, 73, was final yr barred from getting into Taiwan due to his appalling human rights file.
Our revelations will gasoline criticisms that Prof Mainelli – figurehead of the Square Mile – is ‘naive’ and doubtlessly ‘unfit’ to assist the City fight threats from Beijing.
The Lord Mayor of London, Professor Michael Mainelli (Pictured) heads a enterprise linked to a ‘ruthless’ Chinese politician accused of human rights abuses in Tibet
MI5 has advised British enterprise China’s ‘covert strain throughout the globe’ was ‘essentially the most game-changing problem we face’.
‘The Lord Mayor must be conscious that he’s cooperating with a ruthless hardline get together apparatchik who has performed a pivotal position in excessive insurance policies to regulate and remove spiritual religion in China,’ mentioned Tenzin Choekyi, from human rights marketing campaign Tibet Watch.
Z/Yen, chaired by Prof Mainelli, lists China Development Institute (CDI) amongst its ‘platinum sponsors’.
CDI’s board of administrators is chaired by Ye, China’s head of spiritual affairs between 1995 and 2009, who’s accused of orchestrating a collection of assaults in opposition to Tibetan Buddhism.
Z/Yen, a consultancy Prof Mainelli based, is sponsored by a Chinese analysis institute chaired by Ye Xiaowen (Pictured), a hardline Communist apparatchik
Under Ye’s management, monks and nuns have been pressured to bear ‘patriotic schooling’, whereas reincarnations of Tibetan spiritual figures should now be permitted by Beijing.
In 1995, senior Communist officers, together with Ye, seized management of the seek for Tibet’s second most senior monk, the Panchen Lama.
A six-year-old boy chosen by the exiled Dalai Lama was kidnapped by Chinese police and by no means seen once more.
In 2008, a whole bunch of Tibetans have been held after protests earlier than the Olympics. Ye can also be accused of a brutal crackdown on the Falun Gong sect, calling it a ‘toxic tumour’.
Last February, Taiwan mentioned it had banned Ye from attending a commemoration ceremony on the island. It mentioned Ye’s earlier go to in 2009 sparked public protests.
Last night time Chung Ching Kwong, analyst on the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, demanded Prof Mainelli disclose how a lot cash CDI has paid Z/Yen in sponsorship.
She mentioned: ‘Ye is linked to so many human rights abuses, receiving any funding from this individual is unacceptable. What form of message does this ship to the general public concerning the picture of the City of London?’
The City of London Corporation mentioned: ‘The Foreign Office not too long ago engaged with CDI, and we’ll proceed to hunt steerage from the Foreign Office on the present standing of our relationships with China.’
Z/Yen final night time mentioned it had ‘no dealings’ with Ye and that Prof Mainelli is on a ‘sabbatical’ from the consultancy throughout his yr as Lord Mayor.
It added: ‘Z/Yen has collaborated with CDI for a few years in international monetary centres analysis, because it has with different cities and institutes. Z/Yen has had no dealings with Ye Xiaowen.’