Andrew Bingham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Chinese counterpart on the health and whereabouts of human rights’ lawyer Mr Gao Zhisheng following his further detention by Chinese authorities.

Mr Hugo Swire

We remain concerned about human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has been imprisoned in Xinjiang since 2011. We raised his case directly with Chinese officials during the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue on 19-20 May, and urged the Chinese authorities to respect the constitutionally guaranteed rights of all detainees, including access to family, lawyers and adequate medical care.

We understand that Gao’s prison term is due to end soon, and we urge the Chinese authorities to ensure that his rights to freedom of movement and communication are duly protected on his release.