The European Parliament is in the “final stages” of discussions with Beijing about removing sanctions on its members, smoothing the way for improved relations with the bloc, according to a spokesperson for the lawmaking body.
“Discussions with the Chinese authorities are continuing and in their final stages,” the spokesperson said.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola “will first inform group leaders once there is official confirmation from the Chinese authorities that sanctions have been lifted. It has always been the EP’s intention to have sanctions lifted and resume relations with China”, the spokesperson added.
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It is understood that Metsola has met the Chinese ambassador several times and worked intensively over the past weeks to get this over the finish line.
The Chinese government put retaliatory sanctions on some MEPs in 2021, after the EU sanctioned some Chinese officials and entities over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
The plan to remove sanctions was first reported by Noah Barkin, a senior adviser at Rhodium Group, a US research house, on his LinkedIn page.
The lawmakers sanctioned were German conservative Michael Gahler, French socialist Raphaël Glucksmann, centrist Bulgarian Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Slovak conservative Miriam Lexmann, and Reinhard Bütikofer, a Green member who retired at last year’s EU elections.
Sanctions also applied to the parliament’s subcommittee on human rights.
Further sanctions, amounting to a visa ban and asset freezes in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, were applied to a group of EU ambassadors who sat on the powerful European Council’s Political Security Committee, as well as the Mercator Institute for China Studies think tank and several other researchers.
It is unclear if those sanctions are also set to be lifted.
The targeting of this group came after the EU – along with the US, Britain and Canada – sanctioned several Chinese entities for their role in the persecution of Uygurs and other ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang.
Four Chinese officials were targeted as part of that move in 2021: Zhu Hailun, a former secretary of Xinjiang’s political and legal affairs committee; Wang Junzheng, Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; Wang Mingshan, a member of the party standing committee in Xinjiang; and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau.
The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Public Security Bureau was also sanctioned, with Brussels saying the body was “responsible for serious human rights violations in China, in particular large-scale arbitrary detentions and degrading treatment inflicted upon Uygurs and people from other Muslim ethnic minorities”.
The tit-for-tat exchange led to the collapse of a long-negotiated EU-China investment pact, after the parliament refused to consider ratifying it while sanctions remained in place.
Beijing has been pushing, behind the scenes and in public, for the pact’s passage to be reopened - pleas that have fallen on deaf ears until recently. But in recent months, the parliament has made recent efforts to improve ties, including removing restrictions on members meeting Chinese officials, exclusively reported by the Post in March.
The thaw comes after US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has put unrelenting pressure on transatlantic relations. Many in Europe have pushed for an improvement in ties with Beijing, to avoid waging simultaneous trade wars with the world’s top two superpowers.
The relationship sunk to fresh lows in recent years, with the sides clashing over Beijing’s close ties with Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Brussels has also urged China to address its economic policies.
It has taken strong issue with what it says are market-distorting subsidies that are helping create industrial overcapacity, leading to goods being exported at low cost to European markets, pricing out local competitors.
But Trump’s return has inspired a resumption in talks about solving these trade grievances, amid a flurry of face-to-face diplomacy. EU leaders will travel to Beijing for a summit with China’s Xi Jinping in July, while Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected in Brussels before then for political dialogue with Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat.
Those talks are particularly urgent given fears in Europe that Trump’s huge tariffs on Chinese goods will cause a re-routing of industrial items to European ports, further pressuring local manufacturers.
China, meanwhile, has embarked on a charm offensive of its own, trying to rally European governments to fight Trump’s duties together. On Tuesday, Wang spoke by phone with the foreign ministers of Austria and Britain, in an effort to convince them to oppose US moves.
“The US uses tariffs as a weapon to launch indiscriminate attacks on various countries ... as a responsible country, China has stood up to stop it, not only to safeguard its own legit rights and interests, but also to safeguard international rules and the multilateral trading system,” Wang told Britain’s top envoy David Lammy.
More from South China Morning Post:
- As Donald Trump’s tariffs hit US allies hard, will China make inroads?
- EU draws lessons from China clashes as it faces off against US under Donald Trump
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