Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Chinese counterpart on the protection of (a) Ilham Tohti and (b) other human rights defenders in China.

We raised the case of the Professor Ilham Tohti and other human rights defenders with the Chinese authorities at the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue on 27 October, the opening of which I attended. We called upon the Chinese authorities to release Professor Ilham Tohti and those in detention for peacefully expressing their views. We also called for human rights activists detained in China to have their civil and political rights protected, in accordance with China's constitution and international human right commitments.