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Persecution of Christians (South-East Asia and China)

: I understand entirely what my hon. Friend says. I raised the issue of human rights when I visited China last week and spoke to the Vice-Foreign Minister. Coincidentally, I had a meeting with the ambassador of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea only this morning, and I made strong representations to him about general human rights issues and about how they treat their people. One case brought to our attention by NGOs is that of Jiang Zongxiu. She was allegedly beaten to death in police custody on 18 June 2004 after she was arrested for handing out bibles in Guizhou province. It is clearly unfortunate that Jiang was arrested at all, but one positive aspect of the tragedy—if there can be a positive aspect—was the openness with which the Chinese official press reported her death. The UK Government welcomed that openness and the steps taken later by the Chinese Government to tackle torture. However, as I mentioned in a recent debate in the House on Tibet, more transparency would help to transform the situation for vulnerable prisoners in China and for the policemen and the prison warders who look after them. Our experience in the UK has shown that transparency helps to improve the situation radically, and we hope that China will bear that in mind. I want to assure the House that the UK Government regularly raise concerns about the freedom to practise religion in China. On 6 June in London, at the most recent round of the UK-China human rights dialogue, which is a bi-annual, high-level Government exchange, we had an exchange about religion. We shall hold our next human rights dialogue with China in the autumn, when we lead the EU-China human rights dialogue. Ministers and officials also raise human rights concerns, including religious issues, with Chinese counterparts at every available opportunity. I did so last week. I have raised our concerns with the Chinese ambassador to the UK, and we shall regularly press China about its progress on the ratification of the international covenant on civil and political rights, which contains provisions about freedom of belief, freedom of assembly, and the prevention of torture.