Brussels, 05/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 5 January, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticised the European Union's interference in the country's decisions, in the name of human rights. The day before, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton had “regretted” the decisions taken by the Chinese authorities at the end of December 2011 when condemning human rights activists Chen Wei and Chen Xi to nine and a half years' imprisonment. “The external world should not interfere in China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights issues”, the ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said.
The spokesman went on to add that the Chinese judicial authorities dealt with the matter in a fully independent way, in keeping with the law. He said that those who violate the laws of China must be punished according to that law. He gave his assurance that China had “rule of law”.
The Chinese representation mission also contacted the services of the EU high representative directly to make its criticism known.
In a press release on 4 January, Ashton pointed out that the EU was concerned by the worsening of the situation of human rights activists in China and that she will continue to keep an eye on the situation of human rights defenders. She expressed concern regarding the case of the militant, Ni Yulan, whose trial opened last week, due to the latter's poor state of health, and also regarding the case of human rights activist Gao Zhisheng, sentenced to three years' imprisonment at the end of December 2011. (CG/transl.jl)