Germany and the European Union（EU) are under the illusion that they could keep both their money and their freedom despite China having proven its nature as a rogue state throughout all these years.

Since the start of the anti-extradition movement in 2019, Germany and the EU have been repeatedly urging Beijing to practice self-control and engage in dialogues to resolve the situation in Hong Kong. Despite the dire straits Beijing drove Europe and the world into, by covering up COVID-19, the brutality it has demonstrated in the movement and its latest attempt to insert the national security law in a top-down manner, Germany and the EU are still reluctant to pull their heads out of the sand and acknowledge that China is a threat to world peace, public health and the freedom of the world.

Europe considers there is room to remain neutral in the new cold war. Before the pandemic broke out, Europe was suffering from the Euro-crisis where the South were unable to recover from the hit, and the currency was losing its characteristics as an optimal one. At the time, they regarded Chinese investment being of paramount importance and would like to maintain a good relationship with Beijing in order to make as much money as possible before entering an economic recession. Be that as it may, the recent pandemic has forced Europe into a recession earlier than it expected.

Other than acknowledging that it is China who unleashed the virus against the world and later turned it into a propaganda tool threatening for praise and economic benefits, Germany and Europe decided to continue their appeasing foreign policy towards China, sacrificing their core values in exchange for pockets full of Renminbi. Trading with China under such context is dealing with the devil, it is impossible to keep both conscious and money. Trading with China means they will ignore the horrible deeds China has systematically committed — incarcerating millions of Uyghurs and Kazakhs in internment and labour camps, suppressing our democratic movement, breaking international laws and treaties, covering-up COVID-19 and so on.

In Germany’s and the EU's mind, they need money and investment to overcome the recession. Yet the irony is here—relying on the state that drove the continent into its current hardship to lead them out of it. Germany’s economy is mainly constituted by the automobile industry which is highly dependent on China. The EU is about to conclude an investment agreement in September in Leipzig, Germany. That is probably why both of them are reluctant to speak up against China over Hong Kong. EU and Germany understand perfectly the act of curbing down on the movement and inserting the national security law are acts of blatant violations of human rights and ‘one country, two systems’, yet they are not willing to sacrifice the short-term economic benefits for the sake of long term protection of their core values.

Europe ought not to give in to the economic benefits China supposedly offers and sacrifice their founding basis, the respect for human rights and the promise of advocating them. To persuade Europe to stand with Hong Kong, we have to illustrate the harm of remaining neutral in the new cold war and remind them China has never been a trustworthy player in the world. It is impossible for Hong Kong to provide the EU the same market China can offer, but we can remind Europe that trade ought to happen on an equal and fair basis. The market China offers to the automobile industry of Germany or to Europe, comes at an unaffordable cost that is too much for the continent —being overly dependent on China, subjected to China’s twisted values and losing its ability to be an independent economic body. The recession Europe is currently undergoing is brought by the pandemic, which is in fact brought by China; resolving it by subsuming China's power is not the way to go. We have to persuade Germany and the EU to pass legislatures similar to the Magnitsky Act, to impose sanctions on China and include human rights terms in relations to Hong Kong into the trade treaties they are about to conclude with China.

(Glacier Kwong, born and raised in Hong Kong, became a digital rights and political activist at the age of 15. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Law and working on the course for Hong Kong in Germany. Her work has been published on Washington Post, TIME, etc.)

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