In response to a Parliamentary Question, the UK Government has admitted that t hasn’t raised the case of Chinese citizen journalist and human rights defender Zhang Zhan who disappeared into arbitrary detention five months ago for posting articles on twitter about Covid 19. Reports suggest that she is on hunger strike and being forcibly fed – having refused to plead guilty. If we are unwilling to raise cases like hers, what sort of signal does that send to the Chinese Communist Party?
Curtailment of free speech is also in breach of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As a member of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations the Chinese Communist Party should explain why it is in breach of so many of the Declaration’s 30 Articles.