{"id":1844,"date":"2021-02-01T10:54:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T10:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/?p=1844"},"modified":"2021-10-10T15:13:19","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T15:13:19","slug":"the-eus-complicity-in-uyghur-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=1844","title":{"rendered":"The EU\u2019s complicity in the Uyghur genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>6 Minute, 5 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n

On the 1st of January 2021, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and CCP leader Xi Jinping signed the China-EU Comprehensive Plan of Action (CAI). If the European Parliament approve the deal, the EU will gain a greater level of market access to an economy engaged in a form of terror capitalism that many have labelled genocide.<\/a> The driving principle behind the CAI is that China will \u2018change through trade\u2019. While the economies of the EU have benefited<\/a> tremendously from this strategy, Chinese reforms are yet to materialize. Not only has China failed to democratise since it was first admitted to the global capitalist system, it has actually become significantly more<\/em><\/a> authoritarian as the Uyghur concentration camps demonstrate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fox and Godement\u2019s study of EU-China\nrelations provides a damning indictment of this \u2018unconditional engagement\u2019<\/a> strategy and its failure to elicit any\nserious reforms in China. This strategy has also divided EU states seeking to\npenetrate the Chinese market, preventing them from dealing seriously with\nissues like meeting the Dalai Lama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CAI departs from a more\nconfrontational China policy the EU was recently beginning to adopt. One EU Commission\nstrategy paper from March 2019 even went so far as to refer to China as a \u2018systemic rival<\/a>\u2019. China has finally succeeded in reversing\nthis designation; Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, said in an interview that\n\u201cChina and the EU are comprehensive strategic partners, not <\/a>systemic rivals\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What explains the shift in strategy?\nCapitals and researchers across Europe point to Germany<\/a>. Merkel has opposed calls to exclude\nHuawei from Germany\u2019s 5G network and refused to congratulate Taiwanese\nPresident Tsai Ing-wen on her re-election out of fear of offending China.\nGerman-China relations are unlikely to change under the new CDU leader Armin\nLaschet. While Laschet\u2019s rivals Friedrich Merz and Norbert R\u00f6ttgen would have\nengaged with China in line with the \u2018systemic rival\u2019 strategy, Laschet\u2019s track record <\/a>of standing up to authoritarian leaders\nis poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More sinister economic interests may\nactually explain Germany\u2019s complacency in the face of the Uyghur genocide.\nTaking into account Germany\u2019s corporatist economic system is instrumental in\nunderstanding Merkel\u2019s China policy. The car manufacturing lobby wields immense\ninfluence in German politics, especially on China policy. In the words of Andreas Fulda<\/a> at the University of Nottingham, \u201cIn\n2020, it is abundantly clear that China did not liberalise and democratise as a\nresult of German car manufacturers enriching themselves by selling cars to\nChina\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trade deal may benefit the economies of the EU (although even this is doubtful) but it will certainly do nothing to confront the largest case of mass internment since the holocaust. Rather than closing the camps being a necessary precondition of the deal, the CAI merely states vaguely<\/a> that \u201cChina has decided to send a very strong signal in CAI to ratify the ILO fundamental Conventions on forced labour (C29 and C105)\u201d. Martin Thorley, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Exeter, believes these commitments are \u201claughably weak\u201d. This language is not legally binding and is reminiscent of a trade deal with Korea which contained labour rights commitments that Seoul said were just \u201caspirational<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CAI would also inhibit EU-US cooperation on ending forced Uyghur labour. Biden\u2019s national security advisor Jake Sullivan<\/a> has expressed concern about the deal. Martin Thorley believes that weakening US-EU relations may potentially be the main goal of the CCP. The EU views the CAI as merely a trade deal, but Xi Jinping clearly sees it as a political victory<\/a>. While the EU may argue that closer relations with China are a bulwark against \u201cdivide and rule\u201d tactics, Didi Kirsten Tatlow<\/a> argues this fundamentally misses the point – \u201cDivide and rule has, arguably, merely been bumped up a level, with the CAI deal driving a potential wedge into the Western alliance itself\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CAI may be the most egregious example of the failure of the international community to respond to the Uyghur genocide, but the EU is not unique in this respect. The Conservative government in the UK recently voted against an amendment to the trade bill that would have given UK courts the ability to revoke bilateral trade deals with states committing a genocide. The Conservative government point to the Modern Slavery Act as an adequate safeguard of Uyghur rights. However, all the act does is threaten companies making more than \u00a336m a year with fines if they don\u2019t publish a statement <\/em><\/a>condemning slavery. Huawei and Hikvision (two companies deeply embroiled in the Uyghur genocide) have written such statements<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where progress in combatting Uyghur genocide has been made, it has been slow. The official designation of events in Xinjiang as genocide by the US government is certainly a massive achievement but the Trump administration should not be congratulated. Trump consistently blocked bills <\/a>concerning Uyghurs in Congress out of fear that it would make a trade deal harder. Trump himself has expressed support for the internment of Uyghurs on at least two<\/a> separate occasions (once to Xi and once to his staff). With this in mind, the fact that Trump\u2019s administration has done more to combat Uyghur genocide than any other state or multilateral institution is more of an indictment of the rest of the international community than something Trump should be praised for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The international community is at a\ncritical juncture. If the CAI is approved by the European Parliament, then\nGermany will have succeeded in \u2018exporting its China policy to the private\nsector\u2019 as it has for the past 20 years<\/a>. However, this is not inevitable. If the European Parliament votes\nagainst the CAI, the EU may orient itself successfully towards the Biden\nadministration. If the revised genocide amendment succeeds in passing the House\nof Commons in the coming weeks, the UK will begin to fulfil its obligations under\nthe Genocide Convention. Writing to your MP encouraging them to vote for the\namendment takes only 30 seconds using this email template<\/a>. If both of these fail and business interests\u2019 triumph, then a\ndevastating blow will have been made against the campaign to stop the Uyghur\ngenocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you would be interested in becoming a student ambassador for Students for Uyghurs to raise awareness of the genocide of Uyghur Muslims on your campus, please contact: eve.navias@stopuyghurgenocide.org.uk<\/a> or jaya.yetagain@gmail.com<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Genocide Amendment: A Briefing\u2019 taking place at 6:30 pm on Tuesday 2nd of February is an opportunity for you to find out more about the Genocide Amendment, what it will do and why it is so important that it passes. Learn from and ask questions to experts in the field Micheal Polak (Barrister and Director of Justice Abroad) and Joe Collins (Executive Director of Yet Again). The next week is the most important in our fight for Uyghur rights. This amendment has been described as the \u201cmost important breakthrough in human rights legislation in our country for the last 20-30 years\u201d by a leading campaigner on this issue.<\/em> https:\/\/www.eventbrite.co.uk\/e\/the-genocide-amendment-a-briefing-tickets-138968262815?aff=eemailordconf&utm_campaign=order_confirm&utm_medium=email&ref=eemailordconf&utm_source=eventbrite&utm_term=viewevent<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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