01 April 2023 , 17:49
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Boris Johnson’s father has been accused of becoming “the mouthpiece of a brutal and genocidal” regime by collaborating on a TV series with China’s state broadcaster.
Tory veteran Stanley, 82, will retrace the Silk Road journey made by 13th-century merchant Marco Polo.
The three-part film is being jointly produced by China Central Television and UK company One Tribe.
CCTV is owned and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party – and Stanley admits it is choosing the shooting locations. The former MEP and I’m a Celeb star’s Instagram account documented a string of meetings as he wined and dined senior Chinese diplomats to get the green light for the show.
Stanley Johnson ambassador Zheng Zeguang to his home last April (@AmbZhengZeguang)Then-PM Boris’s dad invited ambassador Zheng Zeguang to his home last April, while in June he and son Max, 36, dined at the diplomat’s London residence.
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Stanley and Max, who is Boris’s half-brother, will follow the Silk Road by motorbike for In the Footsteps of Marco Polo. And locations include Xinjiang province – where China is accused of brutally suppressing the minority Uyghur population.
The country was last month described as a “hostile state” by Transport Secretary Richard Holden.
And former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has said Stanley – who Boris has put forward for a knighthood – should be “ashamed” of himself.
He added: “It is propaganda. He is becoming a willing dupe in this process. Any decent journalist would know to accept these terms is to become a patsy for the brutal and genocidal Chinese Community Party.
“It is horrific that he would become the mouthpiece of a brutal, dictatorial Chinese government.”
Stanley said he believed One Tribe was working with Chinese state TV to “map out the places we ought to be going”.
Describing the documentary as a “bridge-building exercise” between the UK and China, he said: “Of course this is done with the co-operation of Chinese authorities.”
He added: “Don’t think we are going to be unaware of what our eyes see and what our ears hear.”
One Tribe boss Dale Templar said: “We have editorial control. We will be showing the film to CCTV because they are going to broadcast it.
“It’s not about politics, it is the story of Marco Polo.”
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