MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the Chinese countersanctions on EU entities and MEPs and MPs

B9‑0269/2021

European Parliament resolution on the Chinese countersanctions on EU entities and MEPs and MPs

(2021/2644(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions and reports on the situation in China, in particular those of 17 December 2020 on forced labour and the situation of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region[1], of 19 December 2019 on the situation of the Uyghurs in China (China Cables)[2], of 18 April 2019 on China, notably the situation of religious and ethnic minorities[3], of 4 October 2018 on mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and Kazakhs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region[4], of 12 September 2018 on the state of EU-China relations[5], and of 15 December 2016 on the cases of the Larung Gar Tibetan Buddhist Academy and Ilham Tohti[6],

– having regard to the conferral of the 2019 Sakharov Prize on Ilham Tohti, an Uyghur economist fighting for the rights of China’s Uyghur minority,

– having regard to Council Regulation (EU) 2020/1998[7] and Council Decision (CFSP) 2020/199[8] of 7 December 2020 concerning restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 5 May 2021 entitled ‘Updating the 2020 New Industrial Strategy: Building a stronger Single Market for Europe’s recovery’ (COM(2021)0350),

– having regard to Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/478 of 22 March 2021 implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1998 concerning restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses[9], which targets four Chinese officials and one entity responsible for abuses in their country, in particular the persecution of the Uyghur minority in the province of Xinjiang,

– having regard to the decision by the Chinese authorities to impose sanctions on 10 EU individuals (five MEPs, three national MPs and two scholars) and four entities in retaliation to the Council’s decision of 22 March 2021,

– having regard to the joint statement of 23 March 2021 on human rights abuses in China by the Chair of its Committee on Foreign Affairs, David McAllister, the Chair of its Subcommittee on Human Rights, Maria Arena, the Chair of its Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation, Raphaël Glucksmann, and the Chair of its Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China, Reinhard Bütikofer,

– having regard to the speeches by its President, David Maria Sassoli, the Chair of its Subcommittee on Human Rights, Maria Arena, and the Chair of its Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China, Reinhard Bütikofer, at the opening of its plenary session on 24 March 2021,

– having regard to the remarks by the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR), Josep Borrell, of 22 March 2021 on China’s retaliatory sanctions against the EU,

– having regard to the speech by the VP/HR Josep Borrell at its debate of 28 April 2021 on the Chinese countersanctions on EU entities and MEPs and MPs and the ensuing debate,

– having regard to the remarks by the President of the European Council Charles Michel following the EU-China leaders’ meeting on 14 September 2020,

– having regard to the joint statement by President Michel and Commission President von der Leyen on defending EU interests and values in a complex and vital partnership following the 22nd EU-China summit that took place on 22 June 2020,

– having regard to the joint communication from the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of 12 March 2019 entitled ‘EU-China – A strategic outlook’(JOIN(2019)0005),

– having regard to the UN experts’ call of 26 June 2020 for decisive measures to protect fundamental freedoms in China,

– having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 December 1966, which China signed in 1998 but has never ratified,

– having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948,

– having regard to Rule 132(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas the promotion of and respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law should remain at the centre of the long-standing relationship between the EU and China, in line with the EU’s commitment to upholding these values in its external action and China’s expressed interest in adhering to them in its own development and international cooperation;

B. whereas on 7 December 2020 the Council adopted a decision and a regulation establishing the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime, which enables the EU to impose restrictive measures on targeted individuals, entities and bodies – including states and non-state actors – responsible for, involved in or associated with serious human rights violations and abuses worldwide, including slavery;

C. whereas since the launch of the Chinese Government’s ‘Strike hard against violent terrorism’ campaign in 2014, the situation of Uyghur and other primarily Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has rapidly deteriorated and whereas more than one million people are imprisoned in detention camps, called ‘political re-education’ or ‘training’ centres, which constitute the largest mass incarceration system in the world; whereas the Chinese Government has developed a massive coercive labour training and transfer scheme, in which Uyghur workers are enrolled and subject to systemic forced and prison labour;

D. whereas the Uyghur population is a victim of the Chinese Government’s efforts to eradicate their unique identity and existence as a population through torture, enforced disappearance, mass surveillance, cultural and religious erasure, the forced sterilisation of women, sexual violence, violations of reproductive rights, and family separation; whereas human rights organisations have assessed that such offences knowingly committed as part of a widespread and systemic attack against the civilian population could constitute crimes against humanity under international law;

E. whereas in its resolution of 17 December 2020 on forced labour and the situation of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the European Parliament called on the Member States and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to swiftly evaluate the adoption of sanctions against the Chinese officials and state-led entities responsible for devising and implementing the policy of mass detention of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, for the use of forced labour, and for orchestrating the severe repression of religious freedom, freedom of movement and other basic rights in the region and in other places;

F. whereas on 22 March 2021, the European Union took the decision to make further use of the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime for the first time in order to address serious human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; whereas the package of measures adopted included the listing of four individuals and one entity from China directly responsible for human rights violations;

G. whereas on 22 March 2021, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the Chinese authorities had sanctioned 10 EU individuals and four entities in response to Brussels’ sanctions against Chinese officials over human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, namely: Raphaël Glucksmann (MEP), Reinhard Bütikofer (MEP), Michael Gahler (MEP), Ilhan Kyuchyuk (MEP), Miriam Lexmann (MEP), Sjoerd Wiemer Sjoerdsma (Dutch MP), Samuel Cogolati (Belgian MP), Dovilė Šakalienė (Lithuanian MP), Adrian Zenz (German scholar), Björn Jerdén (Swedish scholar), the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the European Union, the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament, the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Germany) and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation (Denmark); whereas the individuals concerned and their families are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, while they and the companies and institutions associated with them are also restricted from doing business with China;

H. whereas the Chinese sanctions lack any legal justification and are entirely unsubstantiated; whereas these sanctions target the European Union directly, not only the individuals or entities concerned;

I. whereas the Chinese sanctions against the MEPs could be considered a precedent, having been followed by the decision of the Russian authorities of 30 April 2021 to impose sanctions against eight EU nationals, including the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli and the Vice-President of the Commission Věra Jourová;

J. whereas on 11 March 2021, the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China adopted a decision that will have a significant impact on democratic accountability and political pluralism in Hong Kong; whereas the decision will lead to a concentration of power and influence in the Hong Kong Election Committee, which is not a democratically elected body; whereas, in addition, the decision will lead to a reduction in the proportion of directly elected representatives on the Hong Kong Legislative Council and erodes the ability of Hongkongers to be legitimately represented and to directly influence the decisions it takes; whereas these changes run counter to the commitments to greater democratic representation through universal suffrage as the ultimate aim for the selection of the Chief Executive and the election of the Legislative Council as enshrined in Articles 45 and 68 of the Basic Law;

K. whereas according to the Human Rights Watch annual report, China is in the middle of its darkest period for human rights since the Tiananmen Square massacre;

L. whereas in December 2020 the EU and China agreed in principle to the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI); whereas the ability of the European Parliament to duly analyse the CAI is significantly hindered by Chinese sanctions, which prevent the Subcommittee on Human Rights and several MEPs from working with Chinese experts;

M. whereas in its Strategic Framework on Human Rights and Democracy, the EU pledged to step up its efforts to promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law across all aspects of its external action, and to place human rights at the centre of its relations with all third countries, including its strategic partners;

1. Condemns in the strongest possible terms the Chinese decision of 22 March 2021 to sanction 10 EU individuals and four entities in response to Brussels’ sanctions against Chinese officials over human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region; urges the Chinese authorities to lift the unjustified sanctions against the 10 EU individuals and four entities;

2. Expresses full solidarity with the Members of this Parliament, with its Subcommittee on Human Rights, and with all other individuals and entities affected by the Chinese retaliatory measures, namely the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the European Union, the members of the national parliaments, the Swedish and German academics, and the think tanks in Germany and Denmark;

3. Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to stand in unity to defend our common values and protect our strategic interests; notes with concern the strengthening of the People’s Republic of China’s assertive public diplomacy worldwide following the COVID-19 outbreak, and calls for a strong answer at European level;

4. Is of the view that the EU should seek closer collaboration with like-minded countries and democracies at global level, including the US and Canada and the Asia-Pacific region in particular, including India, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, and should work towards a European strategy for the Indo-Pacific, for which the EU connectivity strategy should be used to the fullest extent; considers that other trade and investment agreements with regional partners, including Taiwan, should not be held hostage to the suspension of the CAI ratification; reiterates the EU’s ambition to achieve strategic autonomy;

5. Stresses that the lifting of sanctions against the Members of the European Parliament and EU institutions is an inevitable precondition for the European Parliament and its committees to proceed with any deliberations regarding the ratification of the CAI; urges the Chinese Government to ratify and implement International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention Nos 29 on Forced Labour, 105 on the Abolition of Forced Labour, 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, and 98 on the Right to Organise and to Collective Bargaining; urges China to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

6. Reiterates its most serious concerns about the various abuses of basic and human rights in China, in particular the systemic persecution of the Uyghur minority in the province of Xinjiang, and the repression of all dissenting and opposition voices; firmly condemns these acts;

7. Strongly condemns this new attempt by the Chinese state and non-state actors to interfere in the democratic life of the Member States and the European Union itself and to spread disinformation in our public debates; reiterates its urgent call for the EU to equip itself with the necessary resources and means to analyse and counter multiple interferences in our democratic systems, including in cyberspace;

8. Urges the Commission, the Council and the Member States to take all the necessary measures and to use all means of leverage at their disposal, notably economic ones, to persuade the Chinese Government to close the camps and to end all human rights violations in Xinjiang and other places, such as Tibet; calls for the EU and its Member States to reiterate this message to the Chinese Government at every occasion and at the highest levels; regrets the fact that the approach taken and tools used by the EU so far have not yielded tangible progress in China’s human rights record, which has only deteriorated over the last decade; urges the Commission to develop and implement a holistic EU strategy with a view to securing genuine progress on human rights in China;

9. Calls on the Commission, meanwhile, to put in place a legal framework to ban the import into the EU of products resulting from forced labour and serious human rights violations;

10. Calls on the Commission, as a matter of urgency, to put forward the proposed EU legislation for corporate mandatory human rights due diligence, imposing due diligence obligations on EU companies and non-EU companies operating on the EU internal market and effectively ensuring that companies do not, in their global value chains, contribute to or benefit from human rights violations in China;

11. Calls on the EU and the Member States to check whether entities operating on the EU internal market are directly or indirectly involved in creating mass surveillance systems in Xinjiang, in running or building detention facilities for minority groups in Xinjiang, or in conducting transactions with any person sanctioned for abuse of Uyghurs and other minority groups in Xinjiang; stresses that the determination of these facts should trigger trade-related measures, exclusion from public procurement and sanctions;

12. Calls on the Chinese and the Hong Kong authorities to restore confidence in Hong Kong’s democratic process and to end the persecution of those who promote democratic values; regrets the fact that the fundamental freedoms, democratic principles and political pluralism that are central to Hong Kong’s identity and prosperity are under increasing pressure from the authorities, while they are meant to be internationally protected until at least 2047;

13. Calls on the Member States to reassess and abolish their extradition agreements with China in the light of the Chinese Government’s severe violations against its population and citizens abroad and in light of the recent sanctions, which could criminalise any Chinese citizen in Europe for interacting with the individuals and entities sanctioned;

14. Calls for the EU, its Member States and the international community to work towards the imposition of appropriate export control mechanisms to deny China access to any technologies and equipment used to violate basic rights and facilitate internal repression, including surveillance technology;

15. Calls for a European response to China’s intensified expansion towards the most exposed Member States and the EU’s neighbours; points out that the current rush to contain the economic fallout of the pandemic will be an opportunity for Chinese strategic investments in key sectors such as telecommunications, transport and technology; supports the Commission in its ambition to tackle this issue, specifically by regulating the distortive effects of foreign subsidies in the single market;

16. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and the Government and Parliament of the People’s Republic of China.