The presidents of the European Council and the European Commission claim to have been “very clear” in condemning the new national security law that Beijing plans to apply in Hong Kong, one of the themes of the EU-China summit celebrated today by videoconference.
At the end of (separate) videoconference meetings with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and the President, Xi Jinping, the chairmen of the Council, Charles Michel, and the community executive, Ursula von der Leyen, said at a press conference jointly that one of the four major themes addressed was Hong Kong and human rights, asserting that they alerted Beijing to the “very negative consequences” that will have an effective implementation of the law in Hong Kong territory.
“We were very clear in our conversations that Beijing’s imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong does not comply with Hong Kong’s basic law, nor with China’s international commitments. That was very clear. The national security law seriously jeopardizes the principle of “one country, two systems”, and Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy, which we wish to see continued in force, “said von der Leyen.
The Commission president underlined that “it was this autonomy that allowed Hong Kong to flourish and be so successful”, with Charles Michel noting in this regard that “50% of EU investments in China transit through Hong Kong”, where “1,600 active countries are active” European companies ”, whose“ political neutrality ”the European bloc demands that it be respected.
“For this reason, we also convey that China risks very negative consequences if it goes ahead with the imposition of this law. The EU is in contact with our G7 partners on this issue, and we made our position very clear to the Chinese leadership today, and urged it to reconsider. Of course they have a different point of view than ours, but ours is very clear and has been passed on to the Chinese leadership ”, reinforced von der Leyen.
The two European leaders also indicated that they also discussed in today’s talks with the heads of state and government of China other human rights issues, having expressed their concern about “the deterioration of the human rights situation, including the treatment of minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, and human rights defenders, as well as restrictions on fundamental freedoms ”.
Charles Michel and Von der Leyen revealed that they had even addressed “a number of individual cases, including reports on citizens who disappeared after reporting their views on the treatment of the new coronavirus outbreak, as well as the continued arbitrary detention of Swedish citizen Gui Minhai and of two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor ”.
