Thursday

28th Mar 2024

EU scrambles for information on China violence

  • Urumqi mosque: the Muslim Uighurs have endured Chinese repression for decades (Photo: swamibu)

The EU has for the past 48 hours kept mostly silent on the ethnic clashes in China, as diplomats struggle to pin down the facts.

With at least 156 deaths and 1,400 arrests after fighting erupted between ethnic Uighur and Han Chinese people on Sunday (5 July), the unrest is the most serious to hit the country since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Amnesty International has called for an "independent and impartial enquiry" into the events amid fears the EU will treat its giant trade partner with kid gloves.

"We shouldn't be seeing these issues undermined by trade or other economic considerations. There should be no special cases," the advocacy group's Brussels director, Nicolas Berger, said.

The EU reaction has so far been limited to remarks by outgoing EU parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering and a European Commission spokeswoman.

"We call for an end to violence and for access to independent media. We regret the loss of every individual life and the suffering of injured persons," commission spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann told EUobserver on Tuesday.

"The news which is emerging of how these protests were handled is disturbing," Mr Poettering said on Monday.

The Swedish presidency has circulated a draft EU statement to member states but the official reaction has been hampered by lack of access to information.

The fighting in Urumqi in the remote Xinjiang province is taking place over 4,000 km away from EU diplomatic missions in Beijing, with Chinese authorities limiting access to foreign press and observers.

"Some of the embassies have contacts in the region and we are trying to use these as best we can," one EU diplomat told this website.

"We have been voicing our concern over the treatment of the Uighur minority since the 1980s. There is no question of treating China as a 'special case'."

Amnesty International says the violence began after a peaceful Uighur demonstration against Chinese police.

It accuses Beijing of "systematic and extensive human rights violations" against the Muslim minority, including restrictions on freedom of worship, language and arbitrary arrests.

China is the EU's second largest export partner after the US. But bilateral relations have frayed in recent months.

Beijing in December abruptly cancelled an EU summit after French president Nicolas Sarkozy met with Tibetan dissident the Dalai Lama in Poland.

The China summit eventually took place in the Czech Republic in May. But the meeting was marked by Beijing's warning for Europe not to meddle in its internal problems.

"In conducting strategic co-operation between China and the EU, the most important thing is to stick to the principles of mutual respect and not interfere in each other's internal affairs," Chinese premier Wen Jiabao said in Prague.

US and EU breaking taboos to restrain Israel

The US abstained and all EU states on the UN Security Council backed a call for an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza, as Europe prepares to also blacklist extremist Israeli settlers.

EU warns Russia over Moscow terror attacks

Europe has warned Russia not to use the weekend's terror attacks in Moscow as a pretext to escalate its war in Ukraine and crackdown on internal dissent.

EU summit risks failing Gaza once again, Ireland warns

Austrians and Czechs might block an EU statement calling for an Israeli ceasefire, Ireland warned, as leaders met in Brussels amid starvation in Gaza. Israel's conduct of the war meant it had "squandered the support they had", Leo Varadkar said.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us