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EU Needs New Strategy to Deal with China

by James Wilson
China's Human Rights Violations

The EU should continue talking to China about global challenges like climate change and health crises, while raising its concerns over systemic human rights violations.

In a report adopted on Thursday, by 58 votes in favour, 8 against with 4 abstentions, the foreign affairs committee outlines six pillars on which the EU should build a new strategy to deal with China: cooperation on global challenges, engagement on international norms and human rights, identifying risks and vulnerabilities, building partnerships with like-minded partners, fostering strategic autonomy and defending European interests and values.

The approved text proposes continued EU-China cooperation on a range of global challenges, such as human rights, climate change, nuclear disarmament, fighting global health crises and the reform of multilateral organisations.

MEPs also call for the EU to engage with China to improve initial response capacities to infectious diseases that could evolve into epidemics or pandemics, for example through risk-mapping and early warnings systems. They also ask China to allow an independent investigation into the origins and spread of COVID-19.

MEPs stress the strategic importance of the EU-China relationship, but make clear that the ratification process of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) cannot start until China lifts sanctions against MEPs and EU institutions.

Members reiterate their call for the Commission and the Council to progress on an EU investment agreement with Taiwan.

Condemning systemic human rights violations in China, MEPs call for regular EU-China dialogue on human rights and for the introduction of benchmarks to measure progress. Dialogue should address, among other things, human rights violations in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Hong Kong.

In addition, MEPs regret the Chinese coercion against European companies that have cut supply chain ties with Xinjiang over concerns for the forced labour situation in the region. They call on the EU to support these companies and ensure that current EU legislation effectively bans firms involved in abuses in Xinjiang from operating in the EU.

MEPs highlight the need to develop global standards with like-minded partners for next-generation technologies, such as 5G and 6G networks. Companies that do not fulfil security standards must be excluded, they say.

The report asks for the European External Action Service to be given a mandate, and the necessary resources, to address Chinese disinformation operations, including the creation of a dedicated Far-East StratCom Task Force.

Hilde Vautmans

“China is a partner with whom we will continue to seek dialogue and cooperation, but a Union which positions itself as geopolitical cannot downplay China’s assertive foreign policy and influence operations around the world, nor its contempt for human rights and commitment to bilateral and multilateral agreements. It is high time the EU unites behind a comprehensive, more assertive China policy that enables it to defend its values and interests by acquiring European strategic autonomy in areas such as trade, digital, security and defence,”

Hilde Vautmans MEP

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James Wilson
James Wilson is a Brussels based journalist and political commentator.

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The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will hold a public hearing on July 1 to review the legality under European law of the Danish government’s “Ghetto Package.” This is a programme introduced in 2018 that, it is said, seeks to reshape the demographic makeup of neighbourhoods through the reduction of housing in targeted areas. This has, it is claimed by campaigners, led to the loss of thousands of family homes, including through sales, demolitions, and forced evictions. One of the cases before the European Union’s top court was brought against the Danish government by a group of Copenhagen residents whose homes in Mjølnerparken, a neighborhood which was designated a “tough ghetto” under the 2018 legislation, are being sold. Campaign group, the Open Society Justice Initiative, says the determining factor in a “ghetto” designation is whether the majority of residents are labelled as being of “non-Western” background. It says that areas that meet the other criteria (over 1,000 residents and at least two of four socio-economic factors related to employment, education, crime rates, and income) are reportedly not subject to the requirement to reduce not-for-profit family housing. The group says that despite the name, the “non-Western” categorization is not based on geography and the residents argue that it is in breach of the EU’s anti race discrimination laws. This, it is further claimed, is in line with the independent findings of a number of international treaty and monitoring bodies such as UN Committees, “with three UN human rights experts having also highlighted that the legislation particularly impacts non-White populations and Muslims.” The Open Society Justice Initiative says that in 2019 the Danish government began referring to the affected areas as “parallel societies” and “transformation areas” instead of “ghettos” and “tough ghettos” in its annual list of targeted areas. “However, there was no structural change to the scheme; and it is clear that the amendment was not to benefit existing residents but to attract others into these areas.” Mjølnerparken was removed from the most recent list, produced in December 2023, as the number of residents has dropped below 1,000 because of ongoing displacement and redevelopment, says Open Society Justice Initiative. “Nonetheless, the sale of over 200 family homes to a private investor is proceeding, with new residents now moving in to replace those who have had to leave. This is despite an urgent appeal from three UN human rights experts requesting Denmark to halt the sale pending resolution of the litigation and a judgment of December 2021 from the Danish Eastern High Court stressing that that the loss of a home is such a serious fundamental rights issue that the residents are entitled to challenge the “Ghetto Package” development plan for the area before it is carried out,” it says. Together with the Danish Institute for Human Rights and two UN-appointed human rights experts, the residents seek a ruling from the CJEU on the correct interpretation of the EU’s Race Equality Directive, including in relation to the term “non-Western” background. Commenting, Susheela Math, Senior Managing Litigation Officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative, said: “It’s been a long journey for the many Danish families and individuals who have been fighting for years for their fundamental right to racial equality to be respected. Too many have already lost their homes and close-knit, diverse communities. “But we now look forward to the opportunity for the Court of Justice of the European Union to reaffirm that equality remains part of the bedrock of the region. It is crucial that no European government is permitted to avoid its legal obligations by using proxy wording for racial or ethnic origin—or by using integration as a guise to treat racialized groups as second-class citizens.” Open Society Justice Initiative says a ruling from the CJEU could be relevant not just in Denmark but across Europe where “trends of neighborhood-based discrimination have been growing.” Tobias Gregory from the housing movement Almen Modstand stated: “We are very concerned about copycat plans in other European countries. 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