Cutting Chinese ties would cost city £100m - report

Severing ties with its sister city of Ningbo in China would cost Nottingham's local economy up to £100m yearly, according to documents the city council has been forced to make public.

A court over-ruled the authority's decision to turn down a Freedom of Information request asking to see a review that led to councillors deciding to keep the twinning relationship.

According to emails and impact assessments, councillors concluded maintaining a relationship and presence in Ningbo despite concerns over human rights abuses would have more of an influence on future generations than cutting ties and provoking hostility.

The documents were released by Nottingham City Council on Friday.

In April 2023, the council rejected a petition, signed by over 1500 people, calling for an end to its twinning partnership with Ningbo.

Nottingham's Labour-run council decided to maintain the relationship but said at the time it had sent a letter to the Chinese government expressing concern about human rights abuses.

Journalist Reagan Yip, who writes for The Chaser News, was studying at Nottingham Trent University at the time, asked the council for documents showing how this decision was made.

Nottingham City Council initially refused this Freedom of Information Request saying it could affect the commercial interests of the universities.

Mr Yip took them to a tribunal over this decision and a court ruled in his favour.

He told the BBC: "It's taken 22 months. I feel very delighted that there will be this transparency from the council because when the council rejected the petition, the decision was made behind closed doors.

A spokesperson for the campaign group Nottingham Stands with Hong Kong said: "Did it really need 22 months of back-and-forth to have only been released now?"

Campaigns globally for de-twinning cities with China followed a UN report in 2022 alleging the Chinese government wa committing serious human rights abuses against the Uyghur population.

Hong Kong activist groups are also concerned about the Chinese government's influence in the UK and the introduction of the China's national security law to Hong Kong in 2020.

Four councils, including Newcastle, Bath and NE Somerset, Wakefield and Newport, ended their twinning or friendship relations with Chinese cities in 2022.

In March 2022, Nottingham City Council ended its twinning relationship with both the Russian city of Krasnador and the Belarussian city of Minsk in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The documents the council were forced to release included an impact assessment submitted by the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University.

The universities underlined that de-twinning would harm Nottingham's international relationships.

Their modelling suggested such a move would result in a loss of between £37-80m per year from Chinsese students to the universities.

The assessment said the impact of this rapid and unplanned income decline would be extremely serious and likely result in job losses.

In 2022-23, international students made up 23% of the University of Nottingham's population - 8% of which are Chinese students.

Cultural benefits, such as the "Dinosaurs of China" exhibition at Wollaton Hall and opportunities for a number of Nottingham-based businesses to expand to China were also cited.

A University of Nottingham spokesperson said: "Across Nottingham city's three constituencies, international students add £685m to the local economy and bring cultural benefits, which enrich our communities, while our overseas campuses harness our research power to find innovative solutions to global challenges."

The released information also included emails from city councillor Angharad Roberts to then city council leader David Mellen, doubting the adequacy of the review paper.

"The universities' views dominate," she said, adding there was "no representation at all of the views of the Hong Kong community in Nottingham".

The response said: "The strong view of the board was to focus positively on the benefits of international relationships and what they can offer."

It goes on to say the council was "wary of provoking a negative 'anti-Nottingham' response".

"Would cutting links with China improve the human rights situation there or would education and engagement with young people exert greater positive influence over potential future leaders?" it said.

See also: University of Nottingham's lucrative China links

Following the release of the documents on Friday, Nottingham Stands with Hong Kong said the council's position was "not acceptable".

The group said: "By not standing up for their values, by retaining their relationship with China through this twinning agreement, it is an infiltration from a foreign country to the decision-making in our local council as well. I don't think this is acceptable".

"Does the public count as stakeholders as well or is it just the universities?"

A University of Nottingham spokesperson said: "Our engagement with China places us in a position to use education as soft power to benefit the citizens of Nottingham as much as Ningbo, while also using our academic research power to present challenges on matters of concern to us all.

"Like all UK universities we need to abide by the local laws in the countries in which we operate.

"However, mandatory activities set down by the Chinese government, such as party activities, are for Chinese home students only and take place outside of our curriculum.

"The Chinese government does not have any influence on the UoN curriculum and how it is taught."

The BBC is awaiting responses from Nottingham City Council and the Chinese government.