Written question asked by Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 8 March 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 16 March 2005. It was answered by Bill Rammell (Labour) on Wednesday, 16 March 2005 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the government of China over its treatment of the practitioners of Falun Gong, with particular reference to the treatment of (a) Mingli He and (b) Xingyan Wei; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has made to the Government of China over its treatment of the practitioners of Falun Gong, with particular reference to the treatment of (a) Mingli He and (b) Xingyan Wei; and if he will make a statement. [221283] Mr. Rammell: We regularly raise our concerns about the mistreatment of Falun Gong adherents in detention. We put forward our concerns most recently at the last round of the UK/China Human Rights Dialogue, held in Beijing on 22 November 2004. We also included a number of Falun Gong prisoners on our list of individual cases of concern handed over as part of the dialogue. Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials also raised concerns about the mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners in detention with Wang Zuo'an, Deputy Director General of the State Administration for Religious Affairs during his visit to the UK in September 2004.

Secondary information