The European Parliament is scheduled to vote on a draft “freeze on the China-EU investment agreement. The EU legislature says Beijing must lift sanctions on EU politicians and diplomats if it hopes to keep its bilateral investment agreement with Brussels.
According to Reuters, the European Parliament will vote on it on Thursday (May 20).
In March, the EU joined forces with the United States, Britain and Canada to sanction some Chinese officials over human rights abuses against the Uighur minority in Xinjiang. The Chinese Communist Party then retaliated by imposing counter-sanctions on EU politicians, academics and research institutions.
MEPs argue that the CCP’s sanctions are not based on international law, while the EU’s sanctions are aimed at human rights violations, which are protected by UN conventions.
The European Parliament considers it “reasonable” for the EU to freeze the approval process for investment agreements because of the “sanctions imposed by the Chinese Communist Party.
The draft states that the European Parliament “requests China to lift the sanctions before processing (the investment agreement). The draft also says that “the EU’s relations with China may not be the same as in the past.
The resolution to be adopted by the European Parliament is not legally binding, but has political influence among the 27 EU governments. If the draft is adopted, the EU-China investment deal will not move forward because the sanctions affect some EU lawmakers involved in the approval talks.
The vote is scheduled to begin at 14:30 GMT on Thursday, according to a Reuters report.
Activists and U.N. human rights experts say at least 1 million Uighur Muslims are being held in detention camps in Xinjiang. They accuse Beijing of torture, forced sterilization and forced labor against other Muslim ethnic groups such as Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
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