Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the human rights situation in China in (a) 2019 comparative to (b) 1989.

Over the past 30 years China has ratified a number of United Nations instruments relating to human rights. However we have serious concerns about the continued lack of respect for civil and political human rights in China, particularly relating to the rights of ethnic minorities; the death penalty; freedom of expression, association and assembly; and freedom of religion or belief.

The advent of advanced surveillance technologies has facilitated increased restrictions on the rights of citizens in China. This has been particularly noticeable in Xinjiang, where there are credible reports of over a million Uyghurs and other minorities being detained in so called “re-education camps”. Reliable reporting suggests the region is subject to widespread surveillance, overt discriminatory profiling of members of ethnic minorities, and an omnipresent security apparatus. British diplomats most recently visited Xinjiang in May 2019 and their observations supported much of the recent open source reporting about the situation in the province.

We urge the Chinese authorities to safeguard their citizens’ rights as enshrined in China’s constitution and in international law.