While Russia has ruptured world peace and made its ambition clear, who is its accomplice?

We, residents of Nottingham, are expressing our deep concern on the close relationship between Nottingham and Ningbo, Nottingham’s sister City in China. 

Most western countries, including the UK, have been helping Ukraine against Russia’s aggression and taken a strong stand against totalitarianism. Meanwhile, China has obviously maintained a stance of pro-Russian pseudo-neutrality in various ways.

Back in September 2013, China signed a Sino-declaration with Ukraine, guaranteeing that China will protect Ukraine under threat of nuclear attack, but it’s clearly a broken promise. In March 2022, only Chinese and Russian judges voted against the UN's international court of justice (ICJ) 's order that Russia halts its invasion of Ukraine. In April 2022, China voted to keep Russia as a part of the United Nations Human Rights Council. China has also been financially supporting Russia including purchasing a large amount of Russian coal and oil in Chinese currency despite EU economic sanction.

From the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and the Uyghur genocide since 2014, to the 2019 Hong Kong democratic movement, the whole world has witnessed that the totalitarian regime of China has been depriving its people of freedom and democracy. China's stance towards Russia's invasion aggravated the condition of Ukraine as it refused to label Russia's act as an invasion and condemn it but criticised western sanctions severely instead. 

Thus, based on all rationalities, we further call on Nottingham City Council to decouple from the Chinese city Ningbo to truly preserve the core value of Nottingham and stand against the evil force at all cost, just as they did previously to sever the sister city partnerships between Nottingham and Krasnodar in Russia and the Belarusian capital Minsk in March 2022.

We strongly urge everyone who shares the same values to sign this petition, sever the risky ties for Nottingham and be in solidarity with those who are suffering.

 

面對現今極權破壞世界和平，俄羅斯野心昭然若揭，然而誰是共犯?

作為諾定咸市的市民，我們希望藉以下聯署對諾定咸市與中國姊妹城市寧波關係表示關切。

全球大部份國家如英國因不認同極權主義，一直以行動支持烏克蘭抵抗俄羅斯入侵。然而，從多方面可見，中國的立場明顯正在支持俄羅斯。

早於2013年9月，中國與烏克蘭簽定了一個雙邊聲明，承諾中方會保護烏克蘭免於核威脅，然而現在明顯中方背信棄義，不守承諾。在2022年3月，只有中國及俄羅斯兩個國家在國際法庭審議俄羅斯停止入侵烏克蘭的提案中投下反對票。2022年4月，中方再次投票贊成保留俄羅斯在聯合國人權理事會的席位。中方亦暗地裡無視歐洲經濟制裁，用人民幣買入大量俄羅斯燃料。        

從1989年天安門事件，2014年新疆維吾爾族的種族滅絕行為，到粗暴打壓2019年香港民主運動，世界都能看到中共的極權政治如何剝奪人民的自由和民主。時至今日，中國對俄羅斯入侵的立場加速了烏克蘭局勢惡化，不但拒絕定性其戰爭行動為入侵及予以譴責，反之批評西方對俄羅斯的制裁。

今年3月，因應俄羅斯對烏克蘭的入侵，諾定咸市議會官方決定斷絕與俄羅斯 Krasnodar市及白俄羅斯首都Minsk的姊妹城市合作關係。因此，跟據以上對中共支持俄羅斯的理據，我們促請諾定咸市議會同樣能夠與中國城市寧波斷絕關係，讓諾定咸市議會真正保護諾定咸的核心價值，與惡勢力對抗。

希望和我們擁有共同價值觀的人能夠簽署和分享此請願出去，讓諾定咸市能夠以正視聽及向被迫害的人出一分力。