EU unhappy with Beijing’s counter-sanctions, halts EU-China investment agreement review meeting

The European Union (EU) on Monday (22) sanctioned four Chinese officials and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) over the Chinese Communist Party‘s human rights violations against the Uighurs in Xinjiang, and the Chinese Communist Party then sanctioned a number of MEPs, European scholars and institutions, a practice that has caused discontent in the EU. The European Parliament decided to cancel the review meeting scheduled for Tuesday (23rd) on the signing of the EU-China Investment Agreement.

In an email on Monday, Winkler Gyula, vice chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, said that “in light of the latest developments in EU-China relations today, and in particular the unacceptable sanctions (by Beijing),” he tweeted that he fully supports the unfair and unacceptable sanctions imposed by China. He said in a Twitter post that he fully supports the MEPs and the relevant European institutions that have been unfairly and unacceptably sanctioned by China. The EU is about values and principles, both within the EU and globally,” Güler continued.

Raphael Glucksmann, a French MEP subject to Chinese sanctions, said on Twitter, “I am on the Communist Party’s sanctions list and cannot enter China (and my Family!) I can’t contact Chinese officials or companies, all because I speak out for the Uighur people and human rights. Let’s be clear: the sanctions are my honor. The resistance will continue!”

In December 2020, the Chinese Communist Party suddenly made major concessions to the EU during discussions on a bilateral investment agreement between Europe and China, resulting in the EU-China Investment Agreement, but due to the current sanctions fiasco, the agreement was not voted on in the European Parliament before the deliberations were abruptly halted, and it is likely to end in a deadlock.