Fact check: China has made only one public statement on Chagos Islands deal

Independent

6 hours ago

Claims have circulated around international support for the Government's deal with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands and its implications for the US-UK military base on Diego Garcia.
The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the deal had 'secured the base for the long term' and that 'has been opposed by our adversaries' including China.
The Conservative Party has claimed it is 'pure disinformation' that critics of the deal are siding with China.
Evaluation
There is limited information on what Beijing thinks about the deal.
Certainly the only known public statement from a Chinese official on the deal applauded the agreement in the context of safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity. It did not mention China's view on the continued presence of the military base on Diego Garcia.
China abstained on the UN vote which was a key stage in the road to the deal, and one expert the PA news agency spoke to said he believes that Beijing 'privately views the agreement … somewhat as a setback', citing a variety of reasons.
The facts
How long have the Chagos Islands been in UK hands?
Britain took control of Mauritius from 1810 when it was seized from the French. Between 1814 and 1965 the Chagos Archipelago was administered by the UK as a dependency of the Mauritius colony.
In 1965 the UK detached the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius and several Islands from the Seychelles and created the new British Indian Ocean Territory. Three years later Mauritius became an independent country.
Between 1967 and 1973 the UK removed the population of the Chagos Archipelago.
What has China said about the UK-Mauritius deal?
On May 26 the new Chinese ambassador to Mauritius, Huang Shifang, gave a speech at a reception attended by the Mauritian Prime Minister, the Vice President and others.
The official text of the speech – which was sent to the PA news agency by the Chinese embassy in Mauritius – does not directly mention the Chagos deal.
A release from the Mauritian Prime Minister's office the next day said of the ambassador's speech: 'Acknowledging Mauritius's firm adherence to the One-China Policy, she commended the recent achievement regarding the Chagos Archipelago.'
The closest that the official text of the speech comes to this is a section where the ambassador says: 'China highly appreciates Mauritius's adherence to the One-China Policy, and fully supports Mauritius in safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.'
However, a short video excerpt from the speech, posted to YouTube, shows that immediately afterwards the ambassador added: 'In particular we applaud loudly for the historical achievement on the Chagos agreement. Massive congratulations.'
What might Beijing think behind closed doors?
It is difficult to say what policymakers in the Chinese capital might be thinking about the deal behind closed doors.
The prime minister's statement appears to claim that China opposed the part of the deal which allows Diego Garcia to remain open.
When the ambassador's speech supported Mauritius's work on its territorial integrity she linked that to the country's One China Policy.
The One China Policy is Beijing's claim that 'Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory'.
So the ambassador's statement – if an accurate representation of Beijing's thinking – could show that China supports the handing over of Chagos to Mauritius because it reinforces the principle of territorial integrity which the Chinese leadership thinks supports its claim to Taiwan.
But this does not rule out Beijing being disappointed about the part of the deal which allows the Diego Garcia base to remain open.
When quizzed on Sir Keir's claims, his official spokesperson pointed towards the deal's support from the US and other allies. This included a post from US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth who said the deal secures 'key US national security interests in the region' and added: 'We are confident the base is protected for many years ahead.'
Benjamin Sacks, a professor of political geography at the RAND School of Public Policy in the US, told PA: 'I contend that Beijing privately views the agreement, even if modified to ameliorate some Chagossians' outstanding demands, somewhat as a setback. In practical terms, it gains little if any advantage from it.'
He said the deal resolves the question as to whether the UK, 'a major state actor supporting existing rules-based orders (RBOs), was violating them in respect to the Chagos'.
He added: 'The Chagos issue constituted a perennial problem for British foreign policy; one that China could simultaneously exploit to demonstrate its supposed adherence to existing RBOs and undermine the UK's traditionally important role in maintaining it.'
The deal 'deters Port Louis (Mauritius) from becoming an effective client state of Beijing' while allowing it to balance a strong economic relationship with China while continuing its close relationships with Beijing's competitors, India, the UK and the US, he said.
Dr Sacks added: 'Analysis … suggests that China prioritises decolonisation so as to replace European and American influence with its own. For this reason, Beijing will applaud the agreement as a 'win' against the major Western powers.'
As for the base at Diego Garcia: 'Beijing will have to contend with its continued presence for at least the next 99 years, and likely longer.'
He said it can also be argued that the base's deterrence effect 'is stronger now that the agreement has secured and clarified its future within international laws and norms'.
What has China said about the Chagos Islands in the past?
In 2017 China abstained on a UN General Assembly vote which asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to deliver an advisory opinion on the dispute between the UK and Mauritius. This ICJ opinion was ultimately cited in the UK-Mauritius agreement.
At the time the Chinese representative to the General Assembly said: 'China calls upon the countries concerned to continue to make efforts in good faith and to continue to carry out bilateral negotiations and consultations, so as to seek an appropriate solution to the question of Chagos archipelago as soon as possible.'
The court opinion that followed in 2019 was that the UK is 'under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as quickly as possible'.
In the wake of this opinion, in 2019 the General Assembly adopted a resolution which welcomed the court's decision. At this point China was one of the 116 votes for the resolution. Six countries voted against and 56 abstained.
The Chinese representative said at the time: 'The Chinese Government is a consistent and firm supporter of the decolonisation process.'
More recently in a China-Mauritius meeting on August 1 last year – according to a Mauritian press release – the Chinese representative 'reiterated China's aid to Mauritius in its quest for sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago'.
UNGA – Thursday, 22 June 2017, 10 am (archived)