MEPs finalised 18 months of inquiry by the INGE committee and adopted its final recommendations. The European public and government officials are “overwhelmingly” unaware of the severity of the threat posed by foreign autocratic regimes, in particular Russia and China, MEPs say in the text. Insufficient defence made it easier for malicious actors to take over…
On Thursday, Parliament adopted a resolution on violations of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong. Parliament condemned in the strongest terms the deterioration of human rights in Hong Kong, including severe restrictions on freedom of expression, freedom of association and press freedom. MEPs called on the Hong Kong government to release all political prisoners and drop…
Sham election shows communist state has no respect for Western values, writes Jianli Yang. Anxious to establish a new world order with China at its centre, Beijing is now coining new definitions for time-tested values and attributes to suit its selfish goal. In Tibet, for instance, it has come up with a call to develop…
Fresh calls for a boycott were made at an online event organised to help shed light on China’s continuing human rights abuses. A boycott is seen by some as a step too far, given the symbolic importance of such an act. But the event in Brussels was told that Member States and the EU institutions,…
With just five weeks to go until the 2022 Winter Olympics kick off in Beijing, the EU has yet to make or not to allow its diplomats and officials to attend the controversial games. This is despite EU member states, including Belgium, announcing a boycott, and the European Parliament voting in favour. This is against…
There is no rational justification for a demand for the “reunification” of Taiwan with the PRC writes Aaron Rhodes. Xi Jinping and other Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders are ramping up rhetoric about the necessity of “unifying” China by bringing Taiwan under their control as a “sacrosanct mission of the entire Chinese people.” Since 1949,…
With China and Russia on the offensive, a renewed and reliable transatlantic partnership is the key to maintaining international and legal order and peace. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) supports the idea of an Alliance of Democracies, ensuring that civil society has significant say in the joint defence of universal values and rights….
Earlier this month, President Biden organised a much-publicised conference on “democracy”. It was an event he’d promised on the presidential campaign trail. The aims were highly laudable, not least as the meeting with the heads of state of Australia, India and Japan was to ensure that “the way in which technology is designed, developed, governed and…
Commenting on today’s Foreign Affairs Council as well as tomorrow’s General Affairs Council, German MEP Reinhard Bütikofer, Foreign Policy Coordinator of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, has backed a diplomatic boycott of the winter Olympics in China. He said: “The Foreign Affairs Council and the General Affairs Council of the EU must prove…
Fresh concern has been voiced about what has been called the “forced organ harvesting industry” in China. A conference in Brussels, called “China: forced organ harvesting and the CCP”, was told that China conducts “thousands” of such transplants every year and the practice amounts to a “crime against humanity.” Many of those targeted for the…
