British politician calls on Chinese community to make voice heard in election

British politician Lord Bates and his wife Li Xuelin on Thursday called on the Chinese community in Britain to cast their vote in the upcoming general election on June 8.

Michael Bates, Britain's Minister of State at the Department for International Development and a member of the House of Lords, said in an open letter that the voting are important matters which impact British Chinese's daily lives as a community and as a country, stressing that the British Chinese voice should be heard in the elections.

In the letter, Lord and Lady Bates said British Chinese make up around 1 percent of the British population, which is enough to populate over six parliamentary constituencies and elect six MPs. But if British Chinese do not register to vote in elections, their voice will be heard less and be less represented in the House of Commons, said the letter.

"Spending a great deal of time with the British Chinese community we know that sometimes there is a reluctance to speak up and a preference to be self-contained. This is an admirable quality. The British Chinese community are amongst the most enterprising, best educated, most healthy and most self-reliant of any of the wonderful mix of ethnic communities that call Britain their home," the letter said.

Lord and Lady Bates said they understand this instinct for self-reliance but sometimes this can be wrongly interpreted as not being interested.

"We know that is far from the truth as so many British Chinese play a positive role in our communities but registering to vote and voting we believe is a way of demonstrating that we are both proud of our Chinese roots but engaged in our British home," they said.

The couple said the importance of vote is to make sure British Chinese's voice can be heard in public debate and the specific needs of Chinese community are not overlooked.

"There is tremendous goodwill and appreciation of the British Chinese community and a good way to demonstrate that we care about where we live is to register to vote," they said.

Britain will hold a general election on June 8, which was called by Prime Minister Theresa May on April 18 and was later approved by the parliament. Endit