The Conservative Friends of the Chinese^[1] is a membership organization which engages with the British Chinese community and on UK - China relations. It is linked to the Conservative Party in the UK and actively campaigns for the Party in the British Chinese community.^[2]

The Group was launched by Boris Johnson in May 2013 to an audience of 200 from the community^[3] and then followed by an event at No. 11 Downing Street with the Chancellor George Osborne.^[4] Since its formation, the group has organised a series of high profile and well attended events by UK Cabinet Ministers in to engage the British Chinese community.^[5]

Mission

The stated mission is to develop meaningful interaction and understanding between the Conservative Party and the various British Chinese communities. The Conservative Friends of the Chinese is a member-led organisation that champions the values and culture of the British Chinese communities and emphases the parallels with the beliefs of the Conservative Party. It strongly advocates for closer relations between China and Britain and is a source of information on China, the British Chinese communities and the global Chinese Diaspora for its key stakeholders.^[6]

The Group has been credited with helping the Conservative Party win over the British Chinese community. In the run up to the British General Elections in 2015, it was reported by YouGov and The Times that the 'Tories have won over Britain's Chinese community^[7]' and 'the party has a 22-point lead among Britons of Chinese origin, who number roughly 400,000 in England and Wales.^[8]' The organisation's Director is based at the Conservative Campaign Headquarters at 4 Matthew Parker Street in Central London. Its parliamentary arm has regularly organised Chatham House rules events in the British Parliament with Government Ministers, politicians, reporters and leading business figures such as Sir Martin Sorrell of the WPP group, Lord Chris Patten, Carrie Gracie of BBC China.^[9]

The Group has been referred to by Anne Applebaum as a lobby group that has many prominent parliamentarians as its members and one that lobbies openly within the U.K. political system.^[10]

Membership

The Group is one of the largest organisations in the British Chinese community with members from all walks of the community,^[11] including key community and business leaders.

Patron

• The Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP^[12]

Chairs

• Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Parliamentary Chairman)^[13]

Notable members

• Lord Michael Dobbs, the author of House of Cards, is a board member of the group, as is Michael Bates, Baron Bates, whose wife is Chinese.
• Alan Mak, the Conservative MP for Havant. He, however has been quoted in the media saying 'he cares little for his ethnic identity, preferring to focus more on the "bigger and more important" issues. He also dismissed as naive the belief that his victory would mean the party would better address the needs of the 500,000 or so British Chinese and East Asians, the country's third-largest ethnic group. "And I certainly have no interest in what people in Hong Kong or China think of me, because I am not representing them. I am representing the people of Havant ... '.^[14]
• Jackson Ng,^[15] a former Political Director of the group, is a Barrister and a political advisor in the House of Lords who was the Conservative Party's Parliamentary Candidate for Liverpool Riverside^[16] in the May 2015 British General Elections and St Helens North for the June 2017 General Elections.^[17]
• Former political directors Johnny Luk and Xingang Wang.

Sub-groups and sister organisations

The Conservative Friends of the Chinese works closely with other affiliated groups of the Conservative Party and they are listed below.

• Conservative Parliamentary China Group
• Conservative Friends of the Chinese (London) - Chinese Conservative Group, Mark Field
• The Shanghai Blue Club - Conservatives Abroad
• The Beijing Blue Club - Conservatives Abroad