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, whether his Department has requested that the Chinese government discloses the number of executions taking place in China.

Mr Hugo Swire

The UK is against the use of the death penalty in all circumstances and we are committed to encouraging its global abolition. China has recently renewed the number of crimes punishable by death from 55 to 46, but it is still believed to be the biggest implementer of the death penalty with numbers estimated in the low thousands.

We continue to raise this issue with Chinese authorities and did so in detail during the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue in April. We have not asked China to disclose the full number of executions but instead focus our lobbying on urging China to reduce its use and ratify relevant international treaties – such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. A transparent legal system and reforms in the rule of law will go some way to helping China in this respect, and we will continue to encourage China to make positive developments in these areas.