Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve the human rights situation in Tibet.

We have concerns about the human rights situation in Tibet which we continue to raise with the Chinese government. Through bilateral dialogue, the UN Human Rights Council, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy, we press the Chinese to exercise restraint, respect religious and cultural freedoms, and lift restrictions on access to Tibetan areas for international journalists, non-governmental organisations and diplomats. Our UK-China Human Rights Dialogue also provides for detailed, expert, engagement on human rights issues, including Tibet.

We believe that meaningful dialogue is the best way to address and resolve the underlying differences between the Tibetan overseas communities and the Chinese government, and encourage all sides to restart talks as soon as possible.