HC Deb 12 June 2003 vol 406 cc1043-4W
Mrs. Calton

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent steps he has taken to support the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners in(a) China and (b) Hong Kong. [118469]

Mr. Rammell

We regularly raise our concerns about the treatment of Falun Gong adherents in China with the Chinese authorities both in bilateral meetings and at the UK/China Human Rights Dialogue, the last round of which was in November last year.

We have followed closely developments involving Falun Gong in Hong Kong and have reported on these in the Foreign Secretary's regular reports to Parliament on the implementation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong. Falun Gong remain free to practise in Hong Kong. We have raised the question of Falun Gong with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government in the context of their preparations to implement national security legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law.