Two diplomats say Hungary has blocked a European Union statement criticizing China’s implementation of new security laws in Hong Kong. The move could weaken efforts to protest Beijing’s restrictions on freedom in Hong Kong, a former British colony.
The EU, which wants to support Britain and the United States in upholding human rights in Hong Kong, was supposed to issue a statement at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday but failed to get the necessary unanimity from all 27 EU member states.
“The Hungarian view is that the EU already has too many problems with China,” a senior EU diplomat told Reuters. Another senior diplomat confirmed the blocked statement and Hungary’s position on the issue, Reuters added. An EU official said the statement had been withdrawn from the EU’s approval process.
On March 22, China and the EU imposed tit-for-tat sanctions as the West accused China of human rights violations in Xinjiang.
Hungarian diplomats in Brussels were not immediately available for comment on the matter. Last month, Budapest reluctantly supported the EU’s sanctions against China, calling them “senseless”, and received an official visit from China’s defense minister just days after the EU’s decision.
Hungary is a major recipient of Chinese investments. In the past, both Hungary and Greece have blocked EU statements against China. China’s COSCO Shipping holds a majority stake in Greece’s largest port.
Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong warned foreign countries this week that they would be taught a lesson if they tried to interfere with China’s management of Hong Kong, the global financial center. Tensions between China and Western governments over Hong Kong are now deteriorating.
The West says the new Hong Kong security law violates a commitment to maintain Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy. China’s supporters say the law restores order after the massive anti-government protests in 2019.
One of the two diplomats said the impasse was the latest blow to the EU’s credibility as a defender of human rights and called into question the “soft power” of the economically powerful EU. The EU’s “soft power” relies on outlawing the death penalty and upholding freedom of the press to inspire other countries to follow the EU’s example.
It also highlights the challenges the EU faces in balancing its commercial relations with China and its ability to speak out against the Chinese government’s crackdown on Hong Kong, human rights lawyers since 2015 and Uighur Muslims in northwestern China. China is the EU’s second-largest trading partner.
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