THIS week the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) will add its weight to the growing international chorus of concern about China's human rights violations, with the publication of a much-awaited report on Britain's relations with Beijing in the run-up to 1997.
The all-party group's expression of concern over the issue is scarcely surprising. At a time when more dissidents, and, in the case of Wei Jingsheng, even his secretary, are being detained on the mainland than at any time in recent years, it would be almost impossible for any such report to avoid the subject.
With yesterday's disappearance of yet another human rights activist in Shanghai, the present crackdown shows no sign of stopping - even if visiting French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur felt able to accept Beijing's assurance that none of those detainedhad actually been arrested.
Whatever the reassurances that ''one country two systems'' provides, such events across the border inevitably increase uncertainties in Hong Kong about the future. That is why the FAC has critically examined Beijing's human rights record, a subject it has previously avoided. No doubt the committee will stress the need for adequate measures to safeguard human rights in Hong Kong.
For the issue does affect Britain since, if nothing else, such violations on the mainland will make it more difficult to manage the territory in the run-up to 1997. As Governor Chris Patten noted last night, the harsh 12-year jail term imposed on Ming Paojournalist Xi Yang will inevitably raise ''a lot of anxieties, a lot of question marks, a lot of doubts in people's minds about the future''.
One way to lessen these concerns would be through the setting up of the independent human rights commission that legislator Anna Wu Hung-yuk is proposing in a draft bill she aims to put before colleagues. However the bill needs the approval of Mr Patten before it can go forward and, although the Governor originally indicated some sympathy, he has been silent on the issue of late. Perhaps now, in the wake of the concern aroused by the Xi Yang case, Mr Patten will come out with a clear declaration of support for the establishment of such a commission.
