Hong Kong will be on the agenda of the virtual Summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders of the European Union (EU). The meeting will be hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel, as Germany holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. It will also be attended by European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

A 3-day physical Summit at which Xi would meet all 27 EU heads of state was planned to be held in the former East German city of Leipzig. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Germany cancelled the physical meeting and shortened it to a one-day virtual Summit to be held on 14 September.

Topics that EU countries would raise with the Chinese President include setting specific climate change targets, China’s full participation in the World Health Organisation’s independent review into the international response to Covid-19, confrontations at the South China Sea and military tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

EU countries will also seek to close a seven-year-long negotiations on an investment treaty, under which European companies would enjoy easier access to Chinese markets and a more level playing field. “Reciprocity is the key word,” said one EU official.

Joe Kaeser, President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens, a German industrial giant, and Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business, also talked about the need for reciprocity with China. He expressed worry about human rights situation in Hong Kong and Xinjiang and said after the imposition of national security law (NSL) on Hong Kong on June 30, German companies no longer trust the Hong Kong government. He warned Beijing if it continues to violate human rights of Hong Kong people and Uyghurs in Xinjiang, it has to take responsibility.

On September 2, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin. Maas called on Beijing to rescind the NSL, which was seen as a tool for repressing freedom of expression in Hong Kong. He also called for a UN observer mission to be allowed into Xinjiang following reports of persecution of Uyghurs there.

Maas rejected Wang’s threats about the Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil for leading a 90-member delegation to visit Taiwan, saying he would pay a “heavy price”. Wang said Vystrcil has crossed a red line. The visit to Taiwan was an intervention in China’s internal affairs and a violation to which the government in Beijing had to respond.

Maas said he had spoken by phone with his Czech counterpart and emphasized that Europe would not be intimidated. “We as Europeans act in close cooperation – we offer our international partners respect, and we expect the same from them. Threats don’t fit in here,” Maas said at the joint press conference with Wang. In response, Wang issued an extended defence of Chinese policy, reiterating warnings that accusations against Beijing constitute an intervention in China’s internal affairs and denying that China sought to disrupt relations.

Six days later on September 8, the Chinese-German Human Rights Dialogue took place in Berlin. German Human Rights Commissioner Barbel Kofler, who attended the meeting on behalf of Maas, said human rights situation in China was deteriorating dramatically and falling even further behind Beijing’s international obligations.

Kofler said she raised restrictions on civil and political rights in Hong Kong as a result of the imposition of the NSL, and the aftermath of the arrests of protesters in Mong Kok on September 6. She also raised the disastrous situation of more than a million Uyghur Muslims being interned in re-education camps in Xinjiang, and persecution and poor conditions of imprisonment experienced by human rights lawyers. She said the Chinese side displayed no readiness to look into detail at concrete cases and processes.

Diplomatic observers said after years of shaping its Asian strategy around China, Germany has decided to make a sharp break and will focus on stronger partnership with democracies such as Japan and South Korea to promote the rule of law. The shift comes as part of a rising sense of alarm throughout Europe about economic dependence on China and Beijing’s poor track record on human rights. Maas said Germany wants to help shape the future global order so that it is based on rules and international cooperation, not on the rule of the strong. Germany has decided to intensify cooperation with countries that share their democratic and liberal values.

Speaking days before the Summit, Chancellor Merkel said authoritarian systems can also be economically successful and challenge Europe on many levels. “But they do this at the cost of basic rights. This is not our European way,” Merkel said.

Outside the EU, the City of London also offered support to the Hong Kong people. On September 10, the City of London Corporation, which is the municipal governing body of the City of London, passed a motion reiterating its support for the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong. It said Beijing’s imposition of the NSL on Hong Kong had breached the terms of the Joint Declaration and undermined the right of the Hong Kong people to enjoy a high degree of autonomy. The motion said anyone from Hong Kong who seeks to live, work and settle in the United Kingdom under the British Nationality (Overseas) scheme or apply for asylum from persecution under NSL will always be welcome in the City of London.

I thank the Europeans for their support for Hong Kong and their concern about human rights and the rule of law in China. I hope more people in the international community will come to realise that making a lot of money is not the be-all and end-all of life. Defending shared values of human rights, rule of law, personal safety and democracy should be the common goal of people in the civilized world.

(Emily Lau, Chairperson, International Affairs Committee of the Democratic Party)

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