I believe the appalling treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang is a scar on the conscience of the world.

It is important that we don’t forget that the Uyghur minority in the west of China have been systematically stripped of what few civil liberties they had, and subjected to treatment which was declared by the House of Commons to amount to genocide. Allegations of patterns of torture, or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.

As you have stated, the accounts about IUD insertions, pregnancy injections and sterilisation are deeply disturbing.

 These accounts were referenced by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in September 2022, when she stated that treatment of the Uyghurs may constitute crimes against humanity. The allegations put forward by SPUC in their report are therefore horrendous, but sadly not surprising.

I believe we need a coherent and consistent strategy for dealing with China across government departments, including imposing sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the persecution of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. 

With regards to aid funding being directed to specific programmes, the UK Government stated last year that it stopped direct government-to-government bilateral aid to the Chinese Government in 2011. It further stated that, in 2021, the FCDO cut its remaining aid programming to China by 95 per cent to £900,000 and that this is focused on specific programmes that support British values around open societies and human rights.

I am aware of SPUC’s assertion that more aid funding was directed towards China than previously recognised. Therefore I have writen to the FCDO to ask that they consider further the SPUC concerns and recommendations