Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor David Leslie Taylor (Labour and Co-operative Party), on Tuesday, 9 January 2007, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 132 members in total.

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CHEN GUANG CHENG

That this House notes the four years and three months' imprisonment of 34 year old Chen Guang Cheng, a blind Chinese human rights activist; notes his crime consisted of acting on behalf of women being forcibly aborted and sterilised; notes that 130,000 women undergo forcible abortions per year as part of the coercive one-child policy; notes that Cheng, a self-taught lawyer, acting for two women whose babies were forcibly aborted only days before birth, approached the State Family Planning Commission asking them to halt such outrages; notes that in response he was placed under house arrest for three months during which he and his wife were persistently threatened by hired thugs; notes that nonetheless he succeeded in bringing the case before the Beijing courts; notes that this failed and Cheng was subsequently imprisoned for trumped up charges of damaging public property and organising villages to disrupt traffic; notes that his attorneys were detained and prevented from appearing and that neither witnesses nor evidence were presented for the defence; notes with shame that the Chinese policy is supported with British taxpayers' money through government grants made to the UNFPA, the International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International, all of which finance Chinese family planning yet have failed in 20 years to change the policy of coercive abortion and sterilisation; and calls on the Government to cancel all grants to groups providing money to countries with coercive family planning policies as well as demanding that Mr Cheng be released from prison without delay.

Amendments

The Early day motion has received an amendment.

CHEN GUANG CHENG (586A1)

The Early day motion has received an amendment sponsored by Lynne Jones (primary, Labour) and tabled on Wednesday, 10 January 2007. It has been signed by 30 members in total.

leave out from `defence;' to end and add `and demands that Mr Cheng be released from prison without delay.'.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

586 

586A1 

Session

2006-07

Other sponsors

Jim Dobbin

Nicholas Winterton

Ann Winterton

David Drew

David S Borrow

Subjects

China Human rights Prisoners Chen, Guangcheng

Link

View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk