The Chinese Ambassador to the EU, Ming Zhang, made a plea for peaceful cooperation between the EU and China before the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs on Monday 21 September.
“There is no doubt: there are differences and disagreements [...] What matters is to have peaceful cooperation, dialogue and consultations, and to manage differences”, he explained, promising that his country wanted to meet halfway, implying that the EU should do likewise.
According to the ambassador, China has ranked first in trade cooperation for the last three years. He added that the sectors to which the EU attaches most importance - finance, infrastructure, transport, and the automotive sector - are more open. Conversely, while “the partnership with the EU has yielded many positive experiences”, “the Chinese are increasingly complaining about the EU. Relations are less friendly and uncertainty is on the rise”, he said.
Ming Zhang also felt that the high-level dialogues launched on climate and environment and on digital technology could offer more opportunities to enrich cooperation and should be taken seriously. According to him, EU policy on 5G and the competition rules have undermined the confidence of Chinese companies. “The problems of Chinese companies must be taken seriously and addressed”, he said.
The ambassador also revisited European criticism of China. “When commenting on China, one must respect the facts. We welcome well-meaning criticism, but not malicious attacks, and we do not allow interference in home affairs”, he warned.
Thus, according to Ming Zhang, “the Chinese government will respect ‘one country, two systems’ and will fully respect civil rights” in Hong Kong. “In the past, Hong Kong was a colony for over 100 years. But the colony no longer exists, so no one has any responsibility”, he said.
According to the ambassador, countries wanting to have official contacts with Taiwan, which is “part of China”, do not respect the One China principle. “We very much hope that the international community will be able to protect the One China principle and act against forces that want to harm it”, he said.
Finally, the Chinese representative explained the situation in Xinjiang. “There are activities to fight terrorism in Xinjiang in order to prevent extremist actions. These efforts must be acknowledged”, he asked.
He described information about detentions and forced labour as “false information”. “We invite the international forces to come and visit Xinjiang [...] to see the real situation”, he said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)