---

East Asia

The response from the Chinese on those matters is interesting. They say that they are behaving as other countries did in the 19th century during the scramble for Africa. That raises big concerns for us because, clearly, the world has moved on. In the 20th century, we had an international human rights and good governance agenda that has been developed in the 21st. The Chinese seem to have the view that they will not ask questions or criticise internal governance or human rights issues; they will simply suck in the raw materials and resources whenever they wish from wherever across the world. That raises serious concerns for all who believe in raising the standard of human rights and good governance worldwide. Before concluding, I turn to the internal Chinese situation. Frankly, China has a poor human rights record and the way it treats its citizens is deplorable in many ways. The difficulty is, how does the rest of the world, which is so dependent on Chinese manufactured goods and obviously interested in having China as a partner, deal with those internal human rights issues? Our Committee raised a number of concerns: the lack of freedom of the media, censorship of the internet and the lack of effectiveness of the various human rights dialogues, including that of the EU, with the Chinese Government. More recently, on 10 September, Xinhua—the Chinese state news agency—announced new regulations under which all news originating from foreign agencies must be cleared and distributed. Ministers received assurances from the Chinese Government that those regulations would not obstruct foreign media agencies working in China. I would be grateful to know whether that commitment has been honoured. On internet censorship, the Committee took companies such as Google to task for voluntarily censoring its web portals in China. It is interesting to note that Google’s cofounder, Sergey Brin, was reported this week as having told people at the Davos economic forum that bowing to Chinese demands for a censored version of its search engine was a mistake—presumably because of the unfavourable reaction from the rest of the world, including our Committee. Brin apparently expressed regret that his company had entered the Chinese market under the terms imposed by the authorities and told The Guardian:"““On a business level, that decision to censor … was a net negative.””" I am pleased to hear that because it is important that the rest of the world raise concerns about unethical behaviour by companies or about collaboration with censorship. I would be grateful for an update from the Minister on the role of western companies and the internet in China. On the wider issue of the EU human rights dialogue, our Committee called on the Government to achieve improvements in that dialogue. We understand that they have recently raised that matter with their EU partners, but I do not know whether there has been any success in encouraging a more robust approach—either from our EU partners or, more importantly, from the Chinese. Will the Minister ensure that that issue is raised and resolved at the next meeting of the EU working group, which I understand is this month? Finally, on human rights, the EU has a long-standing arms embargo on China. Our Committee and the Quadripartite Committee, which is comprised of four Select Committees, have called for that embargo to be maintained. I am pleased that last month the EU reasserted its support for that embargo. In Beijing two weeks ago, Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner laid down three conditions for lifting it: ratification of the UN international covenant on civil and political rights, release of those imprisoned for their involvement in the 1989 crackdown after Tiananmen square and the abolition of what the Chinese call re-education through labour—a system of imprisonment without trial. Do those conditions represent the position of our Government, as well as a collective EU position? I would be grateful for clarification. On the resources that the FCO diverts to China, there is clearly a long tradition of our Government producing experts, known as Mandarins. It is important that people who go to China learn the local language, and we have excellent people out there. I praise the support that we received from William Ehrman and his colleagues in Beijing and elsewhere throughout our visit. I hope that there will be an increased UK footprint in China as it grows as a country. The FCO told the Committee that it will"““continue to review our representation in China and elsewhere to ensure resources are allocated to achieve our strategic priorities. Our ability to maintain or increase resources deployed to achieve these priorities in future will be determined in large part by the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review.””" My message to the Chancellor is that China is vital for our economy and our country, and for the peace and future of the world, so please do not ask the FCO to close posts in Europe, Africa or small Commonwealth countries or on Pacific islands. In the CSR, please give it the resources that will enable it to do the job that is needed as the rise of China continues.