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| The introduction to our Report identified that the Government had adopted a new China policy in the wake of the successful handover of Hong Kong. The Prime Minister and Ministers have chosen to describe it as "a new chapter in our relations with China."
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| This report analyses the first few pages of that chapter. We have identified and concentrated upon certain key aspects of the new policy; particularly the increase in trade and commercial effort backed by a huge increase in UK-based staff; and a radical new approach to human rights based upon what Ministers claim is a unique bilateral dialogue. Because of this claim and clearly from the evidence of Ministerial concerns that the new process of dialogue should not be jeopardised, this Report has inevitably and rightly concentrated upon the human rights relationship with China.
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| We acknowledge the significant advances in the living standards and choices available to the majority of the people of China. We note the Foreign Secretary's observation that "one should not under-state the fact that there is a degree of support for the regime."[524]
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| We also fully understand and appreciate that China is a major international player as a permanent member of the Security Council, and a major military power which seeks to influence not only its own region. We share fully the FCO's objective "to encourage and support China's closer integration into the international system." Membership of the WTO could enhance China as an economic power and as a significant market, though we counsel caution about exaggerating its actual potential.
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| All these important factors cannot and should not mask one fundamental fact: that, from all the evidence gathered, China remains now one of a minority of the world's nations which institutionalises abuse of human rights and sustains an unacceptable degree of surveillance over and restriction upon its people in regard to the basic civil and civic freedoms such as those of speech and assembly.
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| Our report sadly reveals that there has been a serious deterioration in the human rights situation during the last two years which calls into question the efficacy of the Government's new approach to human rights through the dialogue. The dialogue has not yet delivered meaningful results.
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| This should be a matter of great common concern to Ministers and Parliament. The Foreign Secretary confessed that his Department has not analysed why there had been such a deterioration. We believe it imperative that such an analysis be conducted to contribute to the way forward.
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| For we would consider it utterly unacceptable if there were to be, in effect, a trade off between improved economic and commercial relations and a less forceful approach to human rights. The Government has placed human rights at the core of its foreign policy. They should make no exceptions in the case of China. They should apply universal human rights standards universally. They must not be transfixed by the commercial opportunities China presents.
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| The list of recommendations relating to human rights in this report probably constitutes an alternative strategy, though it may be possible to accommodate them within the dialogue. However, we remain adamant that effective pressure on human rights issues bilaterally, collectively through the European Union, and internationally through the United Nations, must remain central to our relations with China.
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