The European Parliament adopted the “Report on the Impact of the Wuhan Pneumonia (COVID-19) Epidemic on the Foreign Policy of the European Union” on March 25, condemning China’s attempts to manipulate and conceal information at the outset of the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak, which led to a global pandemic, and its use of the crisis to restrict human rights, undermine democracy, and weaken the rule of law, and its subsequent use of “virus and wolf diplomacy”. “The Chinese mission in Europe refutes this as an old way of thinking and ideology and hopes that the European side will abide by the basic norms of international law and international relations, such as non-interference in internal affairs. The Chinese mission in Europe refutes this as an old way of thinking and ideology, and hopes that the European side will abide by international law and basic norms of international relations, such as non-interference in internal affairs.
The plenary session of the European Parliament voted to adopt the resolution “Report on the impact of the Wuhan pneumonia epidemic on the foreign policy of the European Union,” which criticized the Chinese government for concealing the epidemic in the early days, which led to the pandemic, and then using “virus diplomacy” to deal with the EU, creating the image of a good-faith power, and using the epidemic to expand its own influence, calling on the EU to re-examine the EU-China relationship.
The rapporteur, Belgian Liberal MEP Hilde Vautmans, outlined that “China’s lack of transparency in dealing with the epidemic, its cover-up of messages during the outbreak, and its firefighter-style virus diplomacy responded to the need for epidemic preparedness with threats that the EU should not lose its independence in the face of, in particular, strategic industries. “
The report condemns China’s erroneous and non-transparent response to the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak, which led to a global pandemic, by concealing the severity of the outbreak, attempting to manipulate and conceal information, failing to notify the World Health Organization, and censoring, threatening, and persecuting whistleblowers, human rights activists, and citizen journalists. The European Parliament wants the EU to urge the Chinese government to cooperate fully with an independent international investigation into the origin of the virus.
As for the outbreak of the virus, China has provided emergency aid to many countries to fight the virus, although the aid was often defective or of poor quality, taking advantage of the opportunity to promote geopolitics and geo-economics with a false propaganda campaign and aggressive outreach of “virus and wolf diplomacy”. In particular, the European Parliament expressed its support for Taiwan, regretted China’s isolation of Taiwan in the World Health Organization (WHO), noted that Taiwan has effectively prevented the epidemic and is capable of contributing to the international response to the current health crisis, and called on EU member states to support Taiwan’s bid to become an observer in the WHO, World Health Assembly (WHA) and other international organizations.
The parliamentary report also noted that China has used the outbreak to strengthen its public diplomacy on a global scale, trying to fill the political vacuum left by U.S. isolationism in the multilateral system and to position itself as a dominant global leader; that China has used the outbreak to strengthen its regional power, with border disputes erupting with many of its neighbors, and to promote its strategic national interests through multilateral organizations; and that it has imposed Hong Kong’s national security law to combat the democratic movement in Hong Kong.
The Parliament called on the EU to respond to China’s increased expansion into some member states and EU neighbors, noting that the current economic impact of containing the pandemic would provide opportunities for strategic investment in key areas such as telecommunications, transportation, and technology. Noting that curbing the economic impact of the current pandemic would provide opportunities for China to make strategic investments in key areas such as telecommunications, transport and technology, and that the pandemic could affect African countries in a “debt trap” and that third countries would become more politically and economically dependent on China for repayment of Chinese loans under the Belt and Road Initiative, the Parliament urged the EU to seek debt relief for third countries in international fora. The Parliament has also called for the EU to review its relations with China and play a new role in light of geopolitical changes.
The Parliament has also called on the EU to re-examine its relations with China and play a new role in light of geopolitical changes, to strengthen its openness and strategic autonomy, to improve the resilience of its own industrial chain and to enhance its close cooperation with strategic partners such as the United States, India and Australia, and to develop a European strategy for the Indo-Pacific region at a time when the global epidemic is a serious challenge.
The spokesman of the Chinese Mission to the EU stressed on the 26th that the report, which was voted by the European Parliament, contains inaccurate information about China, ignores the efforts of the Chinese people to fight the epidemic and the cooperation between China and Europe to fight the epidemic, distorts China’s development intentions, and denies China’s legitimate right to safeguard its own sovereignty and security, which China resolutely opposes.
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