Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has met his Chinese counterpart to discuss the banning of Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Sixtus Leung from taking office in the Hong Kong Legislative Council by the Chinese government.

I have not raised the status of the two legislators with the Chinese Government. A senior FCO official met the Chinese Ambassador to the UK on 8 November to discuss the importance of the Legislative Council to Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy. The British Chargé d'Affaires in Beijing also discussed these issues with the Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs on 7 November. When I visited China from 14 – 17 August, I discussed with the Chinese Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs the importance of the maintenance of 'One Country, Two Systems'. The British Government will continue to monitor, and to report to the House on the situation in Hong Kong.