Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which cases of people detained in China were raised during the state visit of President Xi Jinping in October 2015; and what assurances and undertakings were given in respect of those cases.

During the State Visit, we made clear the importance that the UK attaches to frank exchanges with China on human rights. The Foreign Secretary, my Rt. Hon Friend, the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) raised our concerns at the ongoing detention of Chinese human rights lawyers with the Chinese Foreign Minister and the President of China’s Supreme People’s Court (in January and June 2016). We will continue to make representations on a wide range of cases during the annual UK-China Human Rights Dialogue.