How could they even THINK about inviting China’s despotic leader Xi Jinping to The Queen’s funeral

What a colossal mistake it was to invite China’s Communist leaders to the Queen’s State Funeral in Westminster Abbey on Monday.

Frankly, I am astonished that anyone could have countenanced offering a man such as Xi Jinping – a shameless despot, would-be president-for-life and the heir to Chairman Mao himself – a seat alongside other world leaders to witness the most sacred royal event in Britain in at least a century.

Mercifully, he’s not coming: preferring to hobnob in Uzbekistan with that gangster warmonger Vladimir Putin.

However, China’s vice-president, Wang Qishan, is said to be planning to attend.

He should now be told he’s no longer welcome. Britain’s relations with China are at a historic low. The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that a Chinese delegation was banned from attending the Queen’s lying in state in Westminster Hall in recent days.

The Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, refused access to this delegation amid a row over Chinese sanctions against two peers and five MPs – one of them being me.

I’ve frequently spoken out against China’s genocidal treatment of its Muslim Uighur minority, more than a million of whom have been interred into forced labour and ‘re-education’ camps in the north-west. The women have been forcibly sterilised in what a recent independent inquiry by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC called a crime against humanity.

For this, I and my fellow sanctioned Parliamentarians – as well as our families – cannot now risk travelling to any country that has an extradition treaty with China, for fear that we would be sucked into the Chinese penal system.

Parliament can make its own choices, of course – but Westminster Abbey is not part of the Parliamentary estate. As a result, on Wednesday we learnt that despite the entirely correct refusal of the Chinese delegation’s admission to the lying in state, some of the most senior ghouls of Beijing’s Communist party had been offered the chance to take their seats at the funeral in the Abbey.

I’ve frequently spoken out against China’s genocidal treatment of its Muslim Uighur minority, more than a million of whom have been interred into forced labour and ‘re-education’ camps in the north-west. The women have been forcibly sterilised in what a recent independent inquiry by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC called a crime against humanity. Pictured: Putin and Xi Jinping together today

The case against allowing China a space at this historic event scarcely needs stating. Yet from the methodical dismantling of democracy in Hong Kong, the merciless assault on the human rights of Chinese citizens and the invasion threats against the free people of Taiwan, Beijing has forfeited any place at the table of civilised nations.

Making matters even worse, we can add the extraordinary irony that the regime has been persecuting Christians and destroying churches across China. Some of these buildings have been smashed, their interiors ransacked, while others have been closed down.

The increasingly dictatorial Xi reportedly prefers that paintings and icons of Jesus Christ be replaced with portraits of himself.

China’s Christian communities have also been interrogated by the state and subject to intrusive surveillance.

We learned the hard way in the past that appeasement of dictatorial regimes doesn’t work. Pictured: Putin and Xi Jinping yesterday

How dare the representatives of this anti-Christian regime have the gall to sit in one of the Church of England’s most sacred places – and pay lip service to the memory of our beloved late monarch?

Now, there are some who will insist that a funeral, however grand, is not the place for geopolitics – an event where the differences between countries can be set aside. I understand that view. But the truth is that Britain stands up against regimes whose values run utterly counter to our own.

We learned the hard way in the past that appeasement of dictatorial regimes doesn’t work. We must make it clear that persecuting your citizens at home and threatening others abroad cannot be tolerated. With the eyes of the world on London next week, it is time for us to do what is right.