Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what information his Department holds on the treatment of Wang Yi in China.

Wang Yi was Pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church, an unregistered Protestant house church in Chengdu. He was detained in December 2018 on the charge of 'inciting subversion of state power and illegal business operations.' On 30 December 2019 Chengdu Intermediate People's Court announced it had sentenced Wang to nine years in prison following a closed trial.

We continue to monitor the persecution of Christians for practicing their religion in China. The freedom to practise, change or share ones faith or belief without discrimination is a human right that all people should enjoy. The British government works with international organisations and networks to promote and protect freedom of religion or belief for all where it is threatened, including through the UN, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance.

More broadly, we coordinate with international partners to increase international attention on China's human rights violations. Most recently, we did in September 2023 in the G7 Foreign Ministers Communiqué.