A Message To William Hague

I sent this today

Dear Foreign Secretary

please do not vote for China to be on the Human Rights Council today.

China's human rights record is getting worse and they are a long way off being responsible world citizens.

China is also about to wreck the Tibetan Plateau with large scale mining against the wishes of the Tibetan people

Cheap crap from China isn't worth it

Many thanks

Richard Moulton

And here is the reply

Dear Mr Moulton,

Thank you for your email of 11 November to the Foreign Secretary on Human Rights in China.  I am replying on behalf of the China department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

You asked that the UK vote against China’s re-election to the UN Human Rights Council.  As a matter of policy, the UK does not reveal its voting intentions regarding UN issues, so unfortunately I cannot comment directly. However I can assure you that we carefully consider every country that stands for election to the UN Human Rights Council, and will continue to engage China on human rights issues, including through discussion of its specific pledges to the UN Human Rights Council as part of its bid for membership.

We remain very concerned about the situation in Tibet. We consistently raise these concerns with the Chinese authorities. We did so most recently with the Chinese Embassy in London at official level on 24 October 2013. Our human rights concerns are also addressed in detail in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Annual Human Rights Report (www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk), published on 15 April, and in the update to it, published on 17 October 2013.

During the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process we called on China to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to set a timetable to do so. China has until March 2014 to respond to all concerns raised during the UPR process. The UPR, and the meetings of the UN Human Rights Council, provide regular opportunities to engage with China with the aim of improving its human rights record.

I can assure you that British Ministers are robust in their defence of human rights, and will be discussing these issues with Chinese counterparts this autumn and beyond. We are seeking dates for the next UK-China Human Rights Dialogue which we hope will take place in early 2014.  As the Foreign Secretary has said, we must have a foreign policy based on our values.

Regards

China Department

Foreign & Commonwealth Office