[신냉전 가속] ③ Confrontation of human rights issues with EU and China… Economic cooperation also `shakes`

As the European Union (EU) imposed human rights sanctions against China and China responded to it, tensions between the two sides are rising unprecedentedly.

On the 22nd (local time), the EU decided to sanction four Chinese officials and one organization because they were responsible for the suppression of the Uighurs of Islamic minorities and human rights violations in Xinjiang Weiwuer Autonomous Region, China.

The Chinese government responded immediately.

On the same day, the European Parliament, members of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Lithuania, and the Political Safety Committee of the EU Council were subject to sanctions.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the reason for the sanction, saying, “It has decided to sanction 10 European personnel and 4 organizations that have seriously infringed on China’s sovereignty and interests, and maliciously spread lies and fake information.

Immediately after the EU sanctions, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada also added sanctions against China, citing the suppression of Uighur human rights, and the confrontation between the West and China became clear.

Sanctions against China were announced individually by each country, but after the inauguration of the US administration, Joe Biden is believed to be a coordinated and coordinated Western response to China.

The AFP news agency added that it was the first time the EU sanctioned China on human rights abuses since it imposed an arms embargo in 1989 in the Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Reuters also rated the EU as the first meaningful sanctions against China after the Tiananmen crisis.

Unlike the US, the EU has been avoiding friction with China.

Contrary to the strong response of the United States when China enforced the Hong Kong National Security Law (Hong Kong Security Law) last year, the EU excluded sanctions and emphasized dialogue, exposing a crack in cooperation with the United States.

It was analyzed that this reflects the reality of the EU, which has fallen into a’dilemma’ in its response to China.

This is because China is an important target of economic and strategic cooperation to the EU, and is also a’competitor of the regime’, which is increasingly raising the level of offensive.

China is the second largest trade target for the EU after the United States. China is both a huge market and a major investor in Central European countries where economic power is weak.

Italy and Hungary greatly support China’s One-to-One Road (One-to-One Road: Land and Sea Silk Road) project, which is a program to expand China’s “economic territory”.

On the one hand, however, voices of concern and caution about China, which reveal fundamental differences in the values ​​pursued by the EU, such as the rule of law, freedom, democracy, and human rights, continued.

The EU, which claims to be a human rights advocate, also expressed deep concern over the Uighur issue.

However, there is a temperature difference between the perceptions of the US and the EU, which have conflicted with China as a geopolitical rival.

For this reason, even when former President Donald Trump pressed China to take a stricter stance, the EU did not choose between the United States and China.

Josef Borrell, the senior EU foreign policy leader in charge of EU foreign policy, said in June last year that he did not want a Cold War with China of any kind.

At the end of last year, the EU agreed to sign an investment agreement with China. It was also evaluated that this could disrupt U.S. President Biden’s strategy to strongly press China based on solidarity between alliances.

The EU’s human rights sanctions, which emerged in the midst of this, are quite symbolic, but show that EU policy toward China will be considerably tougher, Reuters said.

However, the EU did not sanction the party secretary of the Weiwuer Autonomous Region in Xinjiang, which is also subject to US sanctions.

Considering this modest approach, China’s immediate counterattack came as a shock, according to the European edition of the US political media Politico.

There are also observations that the EU-China investment agreement could be jeopardized.

In fact, as China puts five major European Parliament members and three EU member states on the subject of sanctions, the European Parliament is threatening not to ratify the EU-China investment agreement. The European Parliament’s Social Democratic Party group is in the position that sanctions must be lifted for ratification.

European Parliament Chair David Sasolly said China’s action was “unacceptable” and warned that the consequences would follow.

European Parliament member Marie Pierre Bedren said under Chinese sanctions, “It seems inconceivable to have the idea that the European Parliament is ratifying an agreement.”

Senior Representative Borrell also said at a press conference the day before, “China’s retaliation has created a new environment and a new situation,” suggesting that he may take a more stern stance against China.

Philippe Lekor, a Chinese expert at Harvard University’s Kennedy School in the United States, predicts that the EU will have to walk a tightrope.

“On the one hand, they’re trying to satisfy big companies, that’s the idea behind investment agreements,” he told Politico. “On the other hand, they’re also part of democratic countries, with some discontent about what’s going on in China.” “I have to show it.”

[연합뉴스]

Copyrights ⓒ Yonhap News. Unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited