- A leading member of the European Parliament has expressed great concern over the EU-branded investment agreement with China over the alleged human rights violations and fears that it could harm relations with the new Biden government.
- The investment agreement between the EU and China aims to liberalize trade between Beijing and Brussels and was concluded in the last days of December following last-minute concessions by Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping.
- But there is growing concern in the European Parliament, which has yet to approve the agreement, over the agreement given China’s human rights record on issues, including alleged forced labor camps and a repression in Hong Kong that began last year.
- “Laying such a Christmas present under Xi Jinping’s Christmas tree after the year we had with China is quite a bit,” Reinhard Bütikofer, chair of the European Parliament’s delegation in China, said in a statement this week. interview with Insider said.
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A leading member of the European Parliament has expressed great concern over the EU-branded investment agreement with China over the alleged human rights violations and fears that it could harm relations with the new Biden government.
The investment agreement between the EU and China aims to liberalize trade between Beijing and Brussels and was concluded in the last days of December following last-minute concessions by Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping.
But there is growing concern in the European Parliament, which still has to approve the agreement, over China’s human rights record, alleged forced labor camps and a repression in Hong Kong, which began last year.
“Laying such a Christmas present under Xi Jinping’s Christmas tree after the year we had with China is quite a bit,” Reinhard Bütikofer, chair of the European Parliament’s delegation in China, said in a statement this week. interview with Insider said.
The full text of the so-called Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) has yet to be published, but there is already criticism of the content of the agreement.
Bütikofer said the European Parliament’s demands that the agreement contain a clause binding China on international agreements on modern slavery were ignored. Instead, the agreement contains only a non-binding commitment by China ‘to make continuous and sustained efforts’ to ratify the conventions of the International Labor Organization on forced labor.
“We have demanded practical steps and guarantees and the agreement is just full of hot air,” Bütikofer said.
This concern was reflected in a letter sent by a group of MEPs to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, reported by The Diplomat magazine.
The appeal, which was also signed by dozens of civil rights groups, said the CAI was “sending a signal that the European Union will seek closer cooperation” with China “regardless of the scale and severity of human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party. . “
The concern focuses in particular on the Xianjing region in northwestern China, where the UN says the government has detained more than one million Uighur Muslims, some of whom are being used for forced labor. China rejects the allegations.
Another concern is the impact the agreement could have on trans-Atlantic relations. The agreement was reached a few weeks before President-elect Joe Biden was to be inaugurated, prompting critics of the agreement to conclude it just before the new government – promising to take a difficult position in China – had time to have to object.
Biden’s national security adviser has already expressed concern about the trade deal. It remains to be seen how much pressure Washington will try to put on Brussels over the deal.
“It is very unfortunate to make this agreement just a few days before the election of President Biden,” Bütikofer said.
“It would seem that the European Union needs more to demonstrate to the United States that we can be strategically autonomous than it is to indicate a need for Beijing that we want to work more actively and coherently with the United States. I think so. is an extremely dubious priority, ‘he said.