European lawmakers have renewed their calls for the bloc’s executive arm to revoke Hong Kong’s special trade status, and to sanction the city’s chief executive and officials to protest against the conviction of former media boss Jimmy Lai on national security charges.
During the debate in the European Parliament on Thursday, Hong Kong time, some MEPs stressed the importance of the EU taking concrete measures in response to the verdict, following a non-binding motion passed in the wake of an earlier national security trial that failed to prompt any action.
Lai, the 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid, could face life imprisonment as he awaits sentencing after being convicted last month of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiracy to print seditious articles.
Some of the MEPs who spoke were members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a global group of legislators that Beijing has labelled a tool of Washington and that was mentioned numerous times during Lai’s landmark national security trial.
“Jimmy Lai is one of the strongest supporters of democracy in Hong Kong ... therefore colleagues I would like to call for a strong statement demanding his liberation,” Slovak parliamentarian and EU Co-chair of IPAC Miriam Lexmann said.
“I urge the European Commission to initiate the suspension of Hong Kong’s special status under the [World Trade Organization] and withdraw the credentials of the Hong Kong economic and trade office in Brussels.”
Marketa Gregorova, a Czech parliamentarian and also a member of IPAC, said: “This resolution must not remain symbolic, it must be followed by action ... Our credibility depends on it.”
Other MEPs also called for Hong Kong officials and civil servants to face sanctions, echoing the resolution calling for Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and others behind the national security law to be subjected to the same penalties already imposed by the US.
The parliament is one of three institutions that make up the European Union, alongside the European Council, which brings together member-state officials, and the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm responsible for most of its technical and administrative work.
In 2024, the European Parliament overwhelmingly backed a similar non-binding resolution calling for action on Hong Kong’s trade status and its economic and trade office following an earlier national security trial that saw 45 opposition politicians jailed for between four and 10 years.
Unlike the US, which revoked Hong Kong’s special trade status in 2020 in response to the imposition of the national security law that year, the EU continues to treat the city as a separate customs territory from mainland China, as is recognised by the WTO.
While the EU has sanctioned some Hong Kong-based companies over what Brussels considers illicit trade with Russia, it has not followed Washington in imposing such measures on the city’s officials.
Jimmy Lai’s case was among three “urgent debates on cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law” discussed by the parliament.
The MEPs also called for his immediate release and warned that life imprisonment for Lai would bring “severe consequences for EU-China relations”.
A vote on the resolution is slated for later on Thursday (Strasbourg and Hong Kong time).
Lai’s conviction in what was considered the most closely watched trial under the 2020 national security law became a geopolitical flashpoint, with Western nations calling for his immediate release while Beijing strongly rejected their interference.
Reiterating the EU’s stance to parliamentarians, European Commission Vice-President Roxana Mănescu described Lai’s conviction as indicative of “the dramatic decline” of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong since 2020.
She repeated the call for Lai’s immediate and unconditional release, but made no mention of whether the commission would take any additional action. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
