best, 24 November 2021
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BRUSSELS, 24 nov (Reuters) – The ambassadors of the European Union approved on Wednesday the first renewal of the bloc's sanctions for violations of human rights, including those of four Chinese officials and one Chinese entity, said two diplomats.
The decision, to be formally adopted early next month, endangers an investment agreement between the two powers signed at the end of December 2020.
China's envoy to the bloc said last week there could be no ratification of the deal until the EU lifted its sanctions., which Beijing considers interference in its internal politics.
The EU included the four Chinese officials, including a senior security manager, on its sanctions list in March over allegations of human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region. Beijing responded with its own sanctions against the Europeans.
Las sanciones de la UE a China son las primeras "medidas restrictivas" significant since the arms embargo imposed by the EU in 1989 after the crackdown on democracy in Tiananmen Square.
La UE acusa a Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, of the mass arrests of members of the Muslim Uyghur minority in northwest China. EU said Chen is responsible for serious human rights violations.
The sanctioned entity was the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps., que según la UE fue responsable de "detenciones arbitrarias a gran escala y trato degradante" of the Uyghurs.
China denies wrongdoing.
Zhang Ming, Chinese ambassador to the EU, declared last week at an online event that, after seven years and 35 rounds of negotiations, el pacto de inversión estaba en peligro debido a los "obstáculos causados por la parte europea".
Others on the EU human rights sanctions list, created in December 2020 to fight serious rights abuses around the world, They are Russian people, free, South Sudanese and North Koreans.
The renewal of the asset freeze and travel ban will be formally approved by EU ministers in Brussels in the days 6 and 7 December, the diplomats said.
(Report by Robin Emmott; editing by Jon Boyle; translated by José Muñoz in the Gdansk editorial office)
