Ahead of EU-China Summit later this year, a group of rights organisations have written a joint letter to EU leaders to express their concerns over China’s abysmal abuses, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet.
“We are writing to share our concerns and recommendations ahead of the forthcoming European Union (EU) – China summit. While we understand that the main topic of discussions will be the Ukraine crisis and the Chinese government’s position on it, we urge you to dedicate adequate time to also discuss those authorities’ assaults on human rights both within and increasingly outside China’s borders,” they wrote in a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and Charles Michel, President of the European Council.
This letter was jointly written by a number of organisations including Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Human Rights Watch, International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and World Uyghur Congress.
The rights group said their concerns are consistent with High Representative Borrell’s remarks at the recent Munich Security Conference about the need to resist the “revisionist campaign” by the Chinese and other governments against human rights and international institutions.
“Since the last EU-China summit, our organizations have published additional information that Chinese authorities are committing mass atrocity crimes targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities. Beijing’s actions are eliminating Tibetans’ cultural, linguistic, and religious rights, and similarly, threaten Hong Kong’s once-vibrant civil society and democratic rights,” the letter read.
Raising concern about the Chinese government’s action, they said Beijing has deepened its use of high-tech state surveillance, persecuted or prosecuted countless independent activists.
In one of the demands, the right groups asked the EU to suspend the bilateral human rights dialogue and pursue a “shadow” or “structured” human rights dialogue with civil society.
They also for international probe into crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities.
Furthermore, the group have urged unfettered and reciprocal access to Tibet, and across China, for foreign diplomats, parliamentarians, UN experts, journalists, non-governmental organizations.