100+ China experts and human rights activists slam “naïve” EU-China deal for “entrenching Europe’s strategic dependency on China”

On 25 January, following the publication of aspects of the text of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), more than 100 China experts, human rights activists and public figures have published an in-depth statement which decries CAI as being based on a “naïve” set of assumptions and “entrenching Europe’s strategic dependency on China.”

The open statement notes that the agreement appears not to take into account the steep deterioration of rights and freedoms in the mainland:

“The outcome of seven years of negotiations, the agreement and the hopes attached to it are products of a bygone era. The Chairmanship of Xi Jinping has been marked by a steep deterioration in the human rights situation everywhere from Hong Kong to Xinjiang. Despite evidence of ethnic cleansing, forced labour, and other gross human rights violations, the leadership of the European institutions have chosen to sign an agreement which exacts no meaningful commitments from the Chinese government to guarantee an end to crimes against humanity or slavery.”

It states that it is “delusional” to imagine that China will keep the promises made within the text:

“The Party’s behaviour under Xi no longer affords any reason to believe it will be constrained by international agreements, much less this investment agreement. Defenders of CAI argue that the arrangement exacts meaningful concessions in areas including the so-called ‘level playing field’ and labour rights. On the issue of labour rights, the commitment to ratify ILO conventions at an indeterminate point in the future is so vague as to be essentially useless. Furthermore, it is delusional to imagine that China will keep promises on these issues of investment and trade when it has broken its promises so regularly in recent years. The Chinese Communist Party has spent the past year destroying autonomy in Hong Kong in violation of its own Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a legally binding agreement registered with the United Nations. The Party regularly flouts WTO rules and has shown a disregard for international law in the South China Sea.”

The statement also includes analysis of European dependencies on China, saying that:

“Europe’s existing dependency on China is alarming. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Chinese state-owned enterprises pounced on the opportunity to buy substantial stakes in key European infrastructure. In Portugal, they purchased the country’s largest insurance company, nearly a third of its formerly state-run energy grid company, 27 percent of the country’s largest bank, and 30 percent of the country’s largest media conglomerate. The Greek Government, under pressure to restructure its debt, found Chinese state-owned enterprises eager investors buying a minority stake in the country’s power grid operator ADMIE and buying a majority stake in the Piraeus Port Authority to make it a central part of China’s ”One Belt, One Road” Initiative. Similar vulnerabilities are evident everywhere from Italy to Hungary. European leaders should be focusing on mitigating these risks, not signing onto a treaty that includes an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism which will consolidate the market access which these firms hold.”

It concludes as follows:

“CAI is based on a naïve misunderstanding of the Chinese Communist Party, its strategy, and its methods, exposing European nations to an array of unnecessary risks. The agreement sends a signal to Beijing that the European Union is willing to set aside evidence of egregious human rights abuses for the low price of a few vague promises of greater market access. Europe can no longer afford to ignore the politics of the Party while pretending the agreements like the CAI are just about trade.”

PLEASE FIND THE FULL STATEMENT AND LIST OF SIGNATORIES BELOW

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the China-European Union Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) and call on the European Union to withdraw from this agreement.

The signal sent by both the timing and the substance of CAI is that European leaders are set on pursuing access to Chinese markets, even if this is at the expense of the bloc’s values and national security. The deal is not only poorly timed but is also based on a naïve set of assumptions about the character of the Chinese Communist Party. It further entrenches Europe’s existing strategic dependency on China and runs counter to Europe’s core values.

The outcome of seven years of negotiations, the agreement and the hopes attached to it are products of a bygone era. The Chairmanship of Xi Jinping has been marked by a steep deterioration in the human rights situation everywhere from Hong Kong to Xinjiang. Despite evidence of ethnic cleansing, forced labour, and other gross human rights violations, the leadership of the European institutions have chosen to sign an agreement which exacts no meaningful commitments from the Chinese government to guarantee an end to crimes against humanity or slavery. Xi’s insistence on the centrality of the Chinese Communist Party in all parts of China’s economic and social life has dashed once-understandable hopes for liberalization.

The Party’s behaviour under Xi no longer affords any reason to believe it will be constrained by international agreements, much less this investment agreement. Defenders of CAI argue that the arrangement exacts meaningful concessions in areas including the so-called ‘level playing field’ and labour rights. On the issue of labour rights, the commitment to ratify ILO conventions at an indeterminate point in the future is so vague as to be essentially useless. Furthermore, it is delusional to imagine that China will keep promises on these issues of investment and trade when it has broken its promises so regularly in recent years. The Chinese Communist Party has spent the past year destroying autonomy in Hong Kong in violation of its own Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a legally binding agreement registered with the United Nations. The Party regularly flouts WTO rules and has shown a disregard for international law in the South China Sea.

China’s punitive sanctions against Australia, in breach of the free trade agreement between the two nations, is yet another example of the potential pitfalls of putting faith in a treaty of this kind. The sanctions have shown the dangers of relying too much on Beijing. The draconian measures against Australian exporters also show that the Chinese Communist Party has no qualms in weaponising interdependence. Yet instead of divesting from China and diversifying European export markets in the Asia-Pacific, the agreement is likely to deepen dependencies of European companies on China.

Europe’s existing dependency on China is alarming. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Chinese state-owned enterprises pounced on the opportunity to buy substantial stakes in key European infrastructure. In Portugal, they purchased the country’s largest insurance company, nearly a third of its formerly state-run energy grid company, 27 percent of the country’s largest bank, and 30 percent of the country’s largest media conglomerate. The Greek Government, under pressure to restructure its debt, found Chinese state-owned enterprises eager investors buying a minority stake in the country’s power grid operator ADMIE and buying a majority stake in the Piraeus Port Authority to make it a central part of China’s ”One Belt, One Road” Initiative. Similar vulnerabilities are evident everywhere from Italy to Hungary. European leaders should be focusing on mitigating these risks, not signing onto a treaty that includes an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism which will consolidate the market access which these firms hold.

European companies which are heavily invested in China can also be co-opted by the Communist Party. The fact that Ericsson’s CEO has lobbied on behalf of Huawei in Sweden is a major red flag. There is mounting evidence that the Chinese Communist Party is seeking to influence or control European companies, for instance through party cells operating within multinational corporations. CAI signals to European business leaders that such interference is a necessary by-product of China engagement, rather than a problem to be dealt with. Those business leaders will be on their own to decide how to accept the political trade-offs, such as pressuring their home governments on unrelated issues, in exchange for controlled economic opportunities that the Party holds hostage when it needs something.

CAI is based on a naïve misunderstanding of the Chinese Communist Party, its strategy, and its methods, exposing European nations to an array of unnecessary risks. The agreement sends a signal to Beijing that the European Union is willing to set aside evidence of egregious human rights abuses for the low price of a few vague promises of greater market access. Europe can no longer afford to ignore the politics of the Party while pretending the agreements like the CAI are just about trade.

It also sends the wrong message to the world. At a time when the democratic world is waking up to the challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party to liberal democracy and the rules based international order, the deal is a set back for those who are seeking to prioritise a more cohesive and coordinated response. The timing of the deal, signed in principle days before a new US administration that is seeking to rejuvenate the trans-Atlantic alliance takes office, is unfortunate to say the least.

For these reasons, we call on the European Union to immediately withdraw from the China-European Union Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, and to notify the People’s Republic of China that any further negotiations are placed on hold until substantial and verifiable progress is made on the concerns named above.

STATEMENT ENDS

List of signatories:

Dimon Liu, Human Rights Activist
Dr Andreas Fulda, Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham
Dr Kevin Carrico, Monash University
Sam Goodman, Hong Kong Watch
Johnny Patterson, Hong Kong Watch
Jakub Janda, Director of European Values Center for Security Policy
Professor William A. Callahan, London School of Economics
Peter Zoehrer, Executive Director of Forum for Religious Freedom Europe
Rahima Mahmut, U.K. Project Director of the World Uyghur Congress
Dolkun Isa, President of the World Uyghur Congress
Dr Aaron Rhodes, President of Forum for Religious Freedom Europe
Professor Stephen L Morgan, University of Nottingham
Professor Dibyesh Anand, University of Westminster
Professor James Millward, Georgetown University
Benedict Rogers, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch
Dr Mareike Ohlberg, Senior Fellow at German Marshall Fund
Laura Harth, Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella”
Charles Burton, Senior Fellow at Macdonald-Laurier Institute
Bianchi Matteo Luigi, Deputato for Camera dei Deputati
Dr Gul Berna Ozcan, University of London
Adjunct Professor Frank Herschel Finch III, University of New Haven
Joey Siu, Advisor to Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China
Professor Jerome Cohen, Founder and Faculty Director Emeritus, US-Asia Law Institute, NYU Law
Lucio Malan, Senator, Italian Republic
Dr Sheldon Stone, Advisory Board Member, Stop Uyghur Genocide Campaign
David Missal, Human Rights Activist and Freelance Journalist
Mia Hasenson-Gross, Executive Director of René Cassin
Nury Turkel, Attorney
Robert L. Suettinger, Director at Laogai Human Rights Organization
Dr Max Roger Taylor, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Dundee
Willy Fautre, Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
Martin Thorley, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Exeter
Tanja Zondervan, Human Rights Advocate and Founder of China Alarm
Dolkun Isa, President, World Uyghur Congress
Michael Senger, Attorney
Finn Lau, Founder of Hong Kong Liberty
Isaac Stone Fish, Founder of Strategy Risks
Bastiaan Belder, Historian/Publicist, MEP 1999-2019, China Rapporteur EP
Dr Valérie Niquet, Sinologist
Dr James Rice, Assistant Professor, Lingnan University (formerly)
Professor Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University
Dr Shaun O’Dwyer, Associate Professor at Kyushu University
Natalie Hui, Convenor of Canadian Friends of Hong Kong
Dr Dilnur Reyhan, Lecturer, INALCO/European Uyghur Institute
Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, President of Political Science Student Union of Chulalongkorn University
Hon. David Kilgour, Former Minister for Asia-Pacific, Ottawa, International Coalition to end Organ Transplant Abuse in China
Mandie McKeown, Executive Director of International Tibet Network Secretariat
Bhuchung Tsering, Interim President for the International Campaign for Tibet
and IPAC Advisor
Pema Yoko, Chairperson, Tibetan Community in Britain
Hong Kong Global Connect
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, Senior Fellow at Institute for Science, Society and Policy, University of Ottawa
Harriet Evans, Professor Emerita at the University of Westminster
Koen Stoop, EU Policy Coordinator for the World Uyghur Congress
Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata, Ambassador and President of the Global Committee Rule of Law
David Lawrence, trade campaigner and human rights activist
Steve Levine, Research Professor at the University of Montana
Martin S. Flaherty, Visiting Professor at Princeton University
Tenzin Dorjee, Associate Professor, California State University, Fullerton
Dr Catrina Ko, Scientific Officer at Hong Kong Global Connect
Philippe Le Corre, Research Fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace / Harvard Kennedy School
Joseph Bosco, Department of Defense (ret.)
Dr Chongyi Feng, Associate Professor at University of Technology Sydney
Wesley Gryk, Lawyer and human rights activist
Ivy Li, Human rights activist
Professor Anne-Marie Brady, University of Canterbury, NZ
Drew Pavlou, Human Rights Activist, Defend Democracy
Dr. Richard Louis Edmonds, Sinologist
Petra Lindberg, Chairman, SHRIC- Supporting Human Rights In China
Victoria H. F. Scott, Independent scholar
Luke de Pulford, Co-Founder, Coalition for Genocide Response
Chris Whitehouse MA FRSA KCSG, Whitehouse Consultancy; Political Advisor, Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.
Shing Kwan, Consultant
Marek Krukowski, Chairman of the Council, Freedom and Peace Foundation
John Kennedy, Founder of Plan200.ca
Nijat Turghun, Uyghur Education Association
Mehmet Tohti, Executive Director of Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project
Peter Dahlin, Director of Safeguard Defenders
Peter Ebertz, Chairman, International Society for Human Rights - Sweden group
Anders Corr, Ph.D., Publisher of Journal of Political Risk
Adrian Zenz, Senior Fellow in China Studies, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
Andrea Venzon, Co-Founder NOW!
Colombe Cahen-Salvador, Co-Founder NOW!
John Song, Spokesperson for Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong
Anna Zádrapová, Head of Red Watch Program, European Values Center for Security Policy
Professor Geremie R Barmé, Professor & Director Emeritus, Australian Centre on China in the World, The Australian National University
Nicolas Strömbäck, Co-chairman ISHR Sweden
Professor Andre Laliberte, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa
Dr Teng Biao, Grove Human Rights Scholar, Hunter College
Richard C. Kraemer Jr., Head of Balkans Program at the European Values Center for Security Policy
Marie Holzman, President of Solidarité Chine
Dean Baxendale, CEO of China Democracy Foundation
Dr Gerrit van der Wees, Adjunct Faculty, George Mason University
Cherie Wong, Executive Director of Alliance Canada Hong Kong
Mattias Björnerstedt, Chairman of Swedish Tibet Committee
Dr Catherine Churchman, Victoria University of Wellington
Imogen Faux, Fellow, Year Here
Filip Jirouš, Researcher at Sinopsis.cz
Lukáš Zádrapa, Associate Professor at the Department of Sinology, Charles University (Prague)
Robert Potter, Cyber Security Fellow, CRS Tama University
Kamil Basaj, CEO of INFO OPS Poland Foundation
Samuel Armstrong, Director of Communications at Henry Jackson Society
Narayan Liu, President of Befria Hongkong
John Cushnahan, Fine Gael, Former MEP and European Parliament Rapporteur on Hong Kong 1997-2004
Dr Horst Fabian, Independent reseacher and EU - China civil society ambassador
Michael Leh, Journalist and Member of the Board of the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM), Germany

Yonah Diamond, Legal Counsel at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights

Jojje Olsson, Journalist and author

Katerina Prochazkova, Journalist, Sinopsis.cz