§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the conditions of imprisonment of Pastor Gong Shengliang in China. [179537]
1332W
§ Mr. RammellWe are aware of a recent NGO report on the prison conditions of Pastor Gong and raised our concerns with the Chinese authorities in May. We also supported an EU demarche on this, and other cases, on 17 June. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted our concerns about Pastor Gong but said they had nothing to add to what had been said in the past. The EU previously made a demarche about allegations of mistreatment against Pastor Gong in July last year. The Chinese responded at the time that the allegations were untrue and said that he was in good health, and had been given the proper medicines and treatment for his stomach problems. We plan to petition the Chinese authorities again, with our EU colleagues, within the next few days.