Despite their educational and economic success, ethnically Chinese people are still underrepresented in the British parliament. Nicolas Groffman examines the reasons why this may be the case
The Chinese are greatly under-represented in British politics. According to the last census, there are 433,150 ethnic Chinese in Britain, 0.7 per cent of the population, around 40 per cent of whom were born in mainland China.
If they were proportionately represented in parliament, one would expect four or five MPs of Chinese ethnicity.
If we take representation in the House of Commons as a guideline, all other ethnic groups do better in politics than the Chinese. There are, for example, 29 MPs of South Asian origin.
As the chart above shows, the Chinese community in Britain is financially and academically a net contributor to society and scores above average compared with other ethnic minority groups, but it is the weakest link in politics.
Incidentally, the Chinese are also under-represented in the performing arts, the military and the police.
What is it about Chinese ethnicity that brings about this disparity? It is clearly not educational attainment or wealth, which are both above average for Chinese Britons.
The Chinese are good tax payers, and get involved in community activities as volunteers and workers. But it does appear that cultural and behavioural factors are restricting them from standing for election. Is it because they are selfish? Timid? Uninterested in politics?
Liberal Democrat peer Clement Jones, deputy chair of the all-party parliamentary group on China, puts it differently: “The Chinese in Britain tend to take a Confucian approach to politics, preferring gradual change to firebrand oratory.”
The fact is that when Chinese people do make an effort, they tend to do reasonably well even if they do not get voted in.
Back in 2010, a mainland Chinese-born candidate stood as a Conservative in Liverpool Riverside and got a respectable 10.9 per cent of the vote.
This was despite having a strong Chinese accent and standing in a constituency that traditionally votes Labour by a huge majority.
The candidate, Wu Kegang, actually increased the Tory share of the vote by 2 per cent.
Now chairman of the BCC Link to China, an organisation dedicated to building partnerships, he looks back on that election as a significant learning experience.
“I would never suggest the system is rigged against Chinese candidates,” he told me recently.
