Responding to the announcement today that the Northern Ireland Executive is to open a Northern Ireland Bureau in Beijing, Amnesty International has called on Ministers to use the office to raise concerns about China's appalling human rights record.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland programme director, said:

"This Beijing Bureau, paid for by the people of Northern Ireland, must be used for promoting not just business but also the importance of human rights values as the basis for our developing relationship with China.

“China is a world leader in the use of torture, execution and repression of its own people. The silence of our leaders in the face of these abuses must not be the price of doing business.”

"Each year, more people are executed in the country than anywhere else. Prisoners are tortured, protestors are beaten and free speech is repressed. Despite all of this, too many foreign governments continue to fail in challenging China's appalling human rights record. Ours should not be one of them."