Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Chinese counterpart on the detention of Jimmy Lai.

The Foreign Secretary set out our views regarding developments in Hong Kong with State Councillor Wang Yi last month. The Minister for the Info-Pacific met representatives of Mr. Lai's international legal team on 10 January and Diplomats at our Consulate-General in Hong Kong will continue to attend Mr Lai's court proceedings. Mr Lai, among others, have been pursued in an obvious effort to silence opposition voices. We continue to make clear to mainland Chinese and Hong Kong authorities our strong opposition to the National Security Law, which is being used to curtail freedoms, punish dissent and shrink the space for opposition, free press and civil society.