The European Parliament today expressed concern about the situation in Hong Kong, calling on the authorities to release protesters arrested for political reasons and on EU member states to consider sanctioning Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, while regretting that the EU has been too eager to reach an investment agreement with China to act on its serious human rights violations.
In a press release, the European Parliament today adopted a human rights resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional release of pro-democracy opposition representatives recently arrested in Hong Kong, as well as those previously detained on subversion charges under the “Hong Kong state security law”.
In particular, the press release states that the charges against Wong Chi-fung, Lam Long-yin and Chow Ting should be dropped in their entirety.
In addition, the European Parliament urged EU countries to consider imposing targeted sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese human rights abusers, including the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Carrie Lam, under the EU’s global human rights sanctions regime.
The European Parliament also expressed regret that the political conclusions of the negotiations between the EU and China on the “China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement”, completed at the end of December last year, did not reflect the Parliament’s call to use the investment negotiations as a leveraging tool to maintain a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong.
Parliamentarians said the EU’s rush to reach the agreement without taking concrete action against China’s serious and persistent human rights violations could damage the EU’s reputation for defending human rights.
Hong Kong police arrested more than 50 people on Jan. 6 in an appalling crackdown on pan-democratic politicians and social activists trying to promote a fair and open primary election for the Legislative Council.
The German daily Handelsblatt reported on January 13 that the arrests of pro-democracy activists by the Hong Kong government were a widespread disappointment in the European Union. Bernd Lange, chairman of the European Parliament’s trade committee, said at the Time that the situation in Hong Kong and China’s continued persecution of human rights were “not a good sign” for the implementation of the investment agreement, and that the European Parliament would make its views clear during the hearing.
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