The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has published a strongly-worded criticism of the government's ethical foreign policy.

In its report, "China", the committee says despite pursuing a "constructive" approach to relations with the Chinese, the country's human rights record has deteriorated substantially over recent years.

The report states: "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 dialogue. The dialogue has not yet delivered meaningful results. 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 standards of human rights universally."

The Foreign Office responded by welcoming the committee's report "as a serious and thorough examination of China and the government's policy." A spokesman told epxNews: "We are not deluding ourselves. We have to be realistic and live in the real world and find improvements on the ground. Our policy has not produced results yet and we have never tried to hide that. We have stated on many occasions that, although there has been some progress, this is not enough."