Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the academic study entitled International Attention and the Treatment of Political Prisoners, published in International Studies Quarterly 65(4):999-1011, by Jamie J Gruffydd-Jones of the University of Kent.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office is closely monitoring this case and we continue to raise it with the Chinese authorities. We have also been in touch with School of Oriental African Studies, and have made clear that any separate response or representations that they wish to make are entirely for them to decide, as would be the case for any UK university concerned about the treatment or detention of one of their students overseas.