EU to sanction Chinese officials over human rights violations

The sanctions, which include a travel ban and freezing of assets, are being imposed due to Beijing’s action in Xinjiang that the US and some European capitals have branded a genocide of the Uyghur Muslim minority.

The decision has yet to be formally signed off, which is expected to take place when foreign ministers meet later in March. Chinese officials have been included in a broader list of suspected human rights violators from Russia, North Korea and Africa.

The names of the officials will only be announced once a formal decision has been reached.

The decision is the latest sign that the EU, despite keeping open channels with Beijing and cultivating deeper economic ties, is prepared to confront China on human rights and other issues. The bloc is trying to maintain a fine – and often divisive – balance in its relationship with a country it calls its rival, its partner and a systemic rival.

In recent years, EU senior Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, have put pressure on human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the country’s treatment of rights activists and journalists, and the tightening of Beijing’s Hong Kong. It drew a clear setback from Chinese officials, with Mr. Xi attacking EU leaders for their own human rights problems and other officials demanding that Europe not interfere in home affairs.

At the same time, however, the EU and China have taken important steps to deepen their economic ties. In December, the two parties ended seven years of negotiations over an investment agreement, which raised concerns from the incoming Biden government and some legislators in Brussels.

At the time of the investment agreement, which has yet to be ratified, EU officials insisted that the agreement would not prevent them from exerting pressure on issues such as human rights and Hong Kong, and pointed to the new sanctions on human rights, which also introduced in December last year. , as a way to do it.

There was no immediate comment on the sanction agreement by the Chinese mission in Brussels.

Earlier this month, the EU used its human rights sanctions, which for the first time are similar to the US Magnitsky Act against those involved in the imprisonment of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. However, the EU has already planned to plan a broader round of sanctions against officials from around the world for human rights violations.

Yet this week it took three days of negotiations among EU ambassadors in Brussels to overcome the differences over the list of sanction targets. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has strong political and economic ties with Beijing, led opposition to the new sanctions, but the 27 governments agreed on Thursday afternoon.

Following the Chinese Communist Party’s use of lethal force against protesters in Beijing in 1989, the EU imposed a series of economic sanctions and embargoes on China, but these have long since disappeared as ties with Beijing flourished in the 1990s and 2000s. The EU has maintained a arms embargo on China.

In recent years, as Xi tightened control in China, tensions between the EU and Beijing have escalated, with battles over trade issues and human rights, as well as tensions over what the EU sees as Chinese disinformation during the coronavirus crisis. The EU has begun discussing Chinese challenges with Washington, although it insists it will follow its own independent line with Beijing.

“There’s a real dynamic going on. “Our Chinese friends are reaping what they have sown in Europe,” said one EU diplomat.

Last year in July, the EU approved some modest measures due to the repression of China in Hong Kong, which restricts extradition agreements with the island. The block is currently weighing additional measures.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel in particular urged the region to maintain close ties with China. German exports to China increased and Ms. Merkel was a strong supporter of concluding the investment agreement quickly.

The US has imposed a series of sanctions on Chinese officials and companies in Xinjiang amid the international condemnation of major internment camps for Uyghur citizens, which include allegations of rights violations and forced sterilization. Shortly before his departure, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described China’s actions in the northwestern province as genocide.

China has denied any ill-treatment of its Muslim minority and officials have denied the mass detention of Uyghurs.

Write to Laurence Norman by [email protected]