Pro-democracy Campaigners: Arrests Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Peter Swallow
Main Page: Peter Swallow (Labour - Bracknell)Department Debates - View all Peter Swallow's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(2 days, 15 hours ago)
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Peter Swallow (Bracknell) (Lab)
The British Hong Kong community, including those who have made their homes in my constituency, will welcome the Minister’s robust answers today. Will she confirm that Beijing’s actions against BNOs will be scrutinised as part of the Government’s China audit?
Catherine West
Yes, of course, but it is a fairly broad audit, so if there is anything specific that my hon. Friend would like our officials to look at, will he send me just a couple of paragraphs so that I can wind that into our response? We want an up-to-date audit and we are hoping to publish it in the coming months, so perhaps he could do that soonish.
We want to be robust on human rights and security, and we are concerned about cyber-security and other aspects of the transnational repression that appears to be growing, but this also has an edge to it, in that we are looking at our own national interest and at where we are exposed economically. This is a difficult thing that we have to do in foreign policy: to look to our own interests, as well as defending our broader human values and human rights.