On Monday 22 March, Europeans denounced China’s sanctions against, among others, the EU Council’s Political and Security Committee, the European Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Human Rights and five MEPs—Reinhard Bütikofer (Greens/EFA, Germany), Michael Gahler (EPP, Germany), Raphaël Glucksmann (S&D, France), Ilhan Kyuchyuk (Renew Europe, Bulgaria) and Miriam Lexmann (EPP, Slovakia). These actors, according to Beijing, “severely harm China’s sovereignty and interests and maliciously spread lies and disinformation”.
In concrete terms, “the individuals concerned and their families are prohibited from entering the mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao. They and companies and institutions associated with them are also restricted from doing business with China”, according to a Chinese government statement.
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, called the measures “regrettable” and “unacceptable”. He called on China to engage in a human rights dialogue with the EU, not to continue to act in a “confrontational” way.
According to a European diplomat, several Member States have decided to summon the Chinese ambassador present on their territory. “We will draw lessons” from the Chinese response, he added.
The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, called the sanctions “unacceptable”, adding that there would be consequences. “The European Parliament and the European institutions are not intimidated”, he warned.
On behalf of the S&D group in the European Parliament, Belgian Kathleen Van Brempt warned that the “lifting of sanctions against MEPs is a pre-condition for us to enter into talks with the Chinese government on the investment deal”. Parliament is due to vote on this agreement in early 2022. “We will not be intimidated, we will not be silenced”, reaffirmed Ms Van Brempt.
“We will not stop working on the issue of human rights, because it is the very principle of the EU”, added Sub-Committee on Human Rights Chair Maria Arena (S&D, Belgium).
In addition to the five MEPs and the two EU bodies, China sanctioned three national MPs (the Netherlands, Belgium, Lithuania), two academics from Germany and Sweden, the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Germany and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in Denmark.
The measures were taken in retaliation for EU sanctions announced earlier in the day against 11 individuals and four entities under the EU’s global human rights sanctions regime, including four Chinese officials and one Chinese entity, who play an “active role and implement Chinese policy” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
For example, the former deputy head of the 13th People’s Congress of XUAR, Zhu Hailun, is subject to sanctions, as is Wang Junzheng, the Deputy Secretary of the XUAR Party Committee and Party Secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), the governmental organisation that exercises administrative authority in Xinjiang and controls economic activities there. The Public Security Office of this organisation is itself subject to measures.
Wang Mingshan, member of the XUAR Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Secretary of the XUAR Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and Chen Mingguo, Director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau and Vice President of the XUAR People’s Government, are also subject to sanctions.
On Monday, the UK also decided to sanction these individuals and entity. The United States did so for Wang Junzheng and Chen Mingguo.
Sanctions against North Koreans, Russians, Libyans and a South Sudanese
The EU sanctions also affect two North Koreans—Minister of Security Jong Kyong-thaek and Minister of Social Security and former Chief of Staff of the Korean People’s Army Ri Yong Gil—and the North Korean Central Prosecutor’s Office, which the EU considers responsible for the crackdown.
The EU is also imposing restrictive measures on the Libyan Kaniyat militia, which has been blamed for the discovery of mass graves in Tarhuna (see EUROPE 12507/7), its leader, Mohammed Khalifa Al-Kani, and his brother, also a militia member, Abderrahim Al-Kani.
Two Russians, the head of department at the Russian Ministry of the Interior in the Chechen city of Argun, Aiub Vakhaevich Kataev, and Abuzaid Dzhandarovich Vismuradov, commander of the ‘Terek’ team within the special rapid intervention unit and Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic. The EU believes that they are “personally overseeing the massive and systematic persecution in Chechnya since 2017”, including against the LGBTI community.
Finally, the Major General of the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSDF), Gabriel Moses Lokujo, and the National Security Agency of the Eritrean government are also subject to sanctions, deemed responsible for acts of torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings.
See the EU decision: http://bit.ly/394cot3
See China's reaction: http://bit.ly/3sgZzDC (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)