Tim Loughton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of developments in the human rights situation in China since March 2015.

Mr Hugo Swire

We pay close attention to the human rights situation in China and report on it regularly through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy. The latest update was published on 15 July and outlines a range of developments from January to June this year.

Whilst we recognise the improvements China has made to social and economic rights, we continue to have concerns about a range of restrictions to civil and political rights. The operating space for civil society groups is shrinking, and over 200 lawyers have been detained or questioned since July. We regularly raise our concerns with China, both through the annual UK-China Human Rights Dialogue and through bilateral meetings, and will continue to do so. We also work through international fora, such as the UN Human Rights Council, to highlight our concerns.