Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's hearing on 14 December 2022 entitled China's religious freedom violations.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's hearing on 14 December further highlights China's ongoing human rights violations.

The environment for freedom of religion or belief across China is very restrictive, including the persecution of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and others on the grounds of their religion or belief.

We work within the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe, International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance and other international organisations and networks to promote and protect FoRB for all where it is threatened.

More broadly, we regularly raise the human rights situation in China directly with the Chinese authorities at the highest levels. Most recently, the Foreign Secretary did so in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart on 20 September.