China: Uyghurs

(asked on 22nd July 2025) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has implemented the recommendations of the Second Report of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Session 2021-22 on Never Again: The UK's Responsibility to Act on Atrocities in Xinjiang and Beyond, HC 198, published on 29 June 2021.


Answered by
Catherine West Portrait
Catherine West
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 1st September 2025

The UK has carefully considered and implemented several of the Foreign Affairs Committee's recommendations on responding to human rights violations in China since 2021. This Government will stand firm on human rights, including in Xinjiang, where China continues to persecute and arbitrarily detain Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities.

We raise our concerns at the highest levels: the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor, Energy Secretary and I all raised human rights recently with our counterparts. We continue to coordinate efforts with our international partners to hold China to account, for example, joining a statement led by Australia on Xinjiang and Tibet at the UN General Assembly in October. In the recently published Trade Strategy, the Department for Business and Trade launched a Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) review to consider the effectiveness of the UK's current RBC measures and alternative policy options, including approaches to tackle forced labour.

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