The EU has reached the China-EU Investment Agreement, which has triggered many criticisms from the public. Recently, more than 100 international figures have signed a petition to withdraw from the agreement, pointing out that the agreement is a mistake.
The EU-China Investment Agreement (CEI) is increasingly opposed by the international community. More than 100 scholars and civil rights activists from around the world have issued a joint statement criticizing the EU for signing the Faust Agreement with Beijing despite the deterioration of human rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong and the Chinese Communist Party‘s reneging on its international commitments, and demanding that the EU withdraw from the agreement and give Beijing clear notice to shelve it. The signatories also called on European parliamentarians to procedurally block the adoption of the agreement. (By Wu Yitong/Cheng Wen)
After the EU and China announced late last year that they had reached an agreement in principle on the China-EU Investment Agreement, there has been a flurry of opposition. Recently, more than 100 scholars from several countries, representatives of human rights organizations and others also signed a joint statement, bluntly calling the agreement a mistake and calling on the EU to withdraw from it.
On January 21, 2020, einhard Bütikofer, chairman of the European Parliament’s China Group, spoke about the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on human rights in Hong Kong. (Screenshot from Bütikofer’s Twitter video)
David Missal, a German academic who is one of the co-authors, said in an interview that the EU is wrong to sign this agreement with China for two reasons: the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and the fact that the Chinese Communist Party has never honored its international commitments.
The most important reason is, of course, the CCP’s human rights problems in Xinjiang, in Hong Kong and also elsewhere in mainland China – imprisoning millions of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, depriving Hong Kong people of their freedom …… and then signing the investment agreement in this context, presumably telling Beijing: you are doing the right thing and you continue to do so. Also China will not accept international laws, international agreements in all areas, and I don’t believe this has suddenly changed. The EU should not sign a China-EU investment agreement with such a government!
Another co-signer, Professor Feng Chongyi of the University of Technology Sydney, criticized the EU, which has always claimed to adhere to democratic values, for abandoning its principles because of transient economic interests.
Feng said: “The EU has always touted its values of democracy and freedom. The Chinese Communist regime has blocked the only democracy, freedom and rule of law in Hong Kong, and by signing a comprehensive investment agreement with the Chinese Communist Party, the EU is making a deal with the devil, which is like giving a big gift to this evil regime.
French sinologist Marie Holzman agrees that the EU should stop the agreement and work with the new U.S. administration to put pressure on China, which has a poor record of human rights and does not keep its international commitments.
We are now facing an important Time with a new president in the United States, and we in Europe and the United States have to work together to put moral, political and economic pressure on China,” Holzman said. If Europe is now on one side and the US on the other, we will definitely fail, the whole world will fail, only Xi Jinping will win, and the Chinese people will also fail, and the Chinese people need our pressure in order to change Xi Jinping’s policies.
Hou Zhiming called on the EU Parliament to practice their human rights and values and to prevent the adoption of the agreement.
Hou Zhiming said: “Because this agreement still needs the approval of the European Parliament, the European Parliament has always said that they are against everything that the Chinese government is doing now about Hong Kong, the Uyghurs, the oppression of religion and so on, so they say they guarantee that they will completely reject and deny this treaty, because this I still have a little hope.
In addition, the European Parliament passed a resolution involving Hong Kong by a large margin on Thursday (21), condemning Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong democrats and demanding that the Hong Kong government unconditionally and immediately release democrats arrested in connection with the National Security Law, including Wong Chi-fung, Chow Ting, Lam Long-yin, Lai Chi-ying and others. It also urged the EU to consider sanctioning nine Chinese and Hong Kong officials, including Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Director of the Central Government’s National Security Agency in Hong Kong Zheng Yanxiong.
At the meeting, a number of MEPs criticized the EU and China for reaching the China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement in principle and not using the issue of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy as a bargaining chip, and a Belgian MEP (Assita Kanko) severely criticized the EU and expressed deep shame at the EU’s approach.
The statement, signed by academics and human rights activists, points out that the CEIBS agreement signals that European leaders are taking on the Chinese market, even at the expense of EU values and national security, and further entrenching Europe’s strategic dependence on China.
The statement also refutes statements by CEIBS supporters that China’s commitments on labor rights in the agreement are very vague. The Xi Jinping government’s actions have removed any confidence that China will be bound by international agreements. In the past year, the CCP has violated the Hong Kong Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy; it has also ignored WTO rules and international law related to the South China Sea, etc. China has repeatedly broken international commitments, and it is an illusion to believe that she will keep her promises on investment and trade issues.
The co-signers also include Andreas Fulda, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham in the UK, Kevin Carrico, a sinologist at Monash University in Australia, several human rights organizations in solidarity with Hong Kong, Tibetan organizations, and Doricun, the president of the World Vision, among others. They intend to invite more MEPs to join the joint action.
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