EU ambassadors agree on sanctions resolution by Chinese authorities
Final decision at the meeting of EU foreign ministers on the 22nd
“Sanctions mean confrontation”… Chinese strong repulsion
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Reuters reported, citing sources on the 17th (local time), that the European Union (EU) has agreed to put Chinese officials and others subject to sanctions taking into account the human rights situation in Xinjiang’s Uighur Autonomous Region. It is the first time since the Tiananmen incident in 1989 that the EU has proposed sanctions against China by referring directly to human rights violations. The EU is also joining the US pressure on the public, and pressure on China is increasing. According to Reuters, EU ambassadors agreed on a sanctions resolution on the day to ban travel and freeze assets for four Chinese officials and one organization involved in the violation of Uighur human rights. However, the specific name of the sanctioned target will not be disclosed until official approval is obtained at the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on the 22nd.
EU ambassadors told Reuters that “Chinese officials are suspected of infringing human rights,” and said, “We have taken this action in reflection of the deep concerns of countries including the United States.”
International human rights groups and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination estimate that about 1 million Uighurs and other ethnic minority Muslims in Xinjiang are receiving reeducation in’reeducation camps’.
International human rights groups have criticized the Chinese Communist Party for indoctrinating prisoners of Muslims to deny Islam and to be loyal to the Communist Party.
Western countries argue that forced labor using minorities is being carried out in Xinjiang, as well as torture, abortions, and even’massacre’.
China is strongly opposing it, including warnings after reports that the EU is considering sanctions against China.
During a videoconference with the European Policy Center (EPC), a Brussels think tank the previous day, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Ming said, “I would like to emphasize that sanctions against China are confrontation. It can be interpreted as trying to infringe.”
“We want conversation, not confrontation. “We ask the EU to think twice,” he said. “If some want a confrontation, we won’t back down.”
/ Reporter Park Seong-gyu [email protected]
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