Why Is the EU Pulling Punches on Beijing’s Human Rights Abuses?
Four years ago, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry predicted that the European Union would create a brief alliance with certain major Asian powers based mainly on trade. Since then, a mountain of evidence has emerged showing that the formation of this alliance is quickly progressing. Last week, that mountain grew larger.
On June 25, EU leaders deviated from the usual pomp and publicity of the annual EU-China Human Rights Dialogue, and conducted the latest round in comparative obscurity. The Human Rights Watch (hrw) said the low profile and low pressure of the event was a significant win for China:
“[T]his is precisely the kind of ‘dialogue’ the Chinese government likes best: away from senior Chinese officials, away from the international press, and with little ambition from either side to apply rights protection to real-life situations in China. With each successive round, the Chinese government feels less obliged to make changes, while the EU accepts progressively more restrictive conditions on even holding the dialogue.”
In the arena of human rights commitment, the EU is no ordinary political entity. Since the end of World War ii, in large part to distance itself from the human rights atrocities it committed in the war, the German-led European Union has tried to portray itself as an uncompromising defender of human rights. “Human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights—these values have been embedded in the EU treaties right from the start. … Countries in the EU and those seeking to join must respect human rights. So must countries that conclude trade and cooperation agreements with the EU. … The EU has therefore put the human rights issue at the forefront of its relations with other countries and regions,” The EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights says.
Why would the continent that champions itself as the global leader in human rights commitment capitulate to a nation with one of the very worst records of ongoing human rights abuses in the world? Because Europe wants China’s economic cooperation.
Back in March of 2011, the EU-financed Europe-China Research and Advice Network (ecran) counseled Europe’s foreign-policy makers not to apply much pressure on China regarding its egregious human rights problems. By walking softly in this area, ecran said, Europe could win a bigger slice of Asia’s economic pie. The EU’s decision to hold the June 25 Human Rights dialogue on Beijing’s terms—out of the limelight, and without real pressure—shows that Europe is taking ecran’s advice. The EU is turning a dim eye to China’s human rights failings so it can win more favor with Beijing, and boost EU-China trade.
Measures like these—in which the economic bottom line trumps all other concerns—are paying big dividends for both sides. Just two decades ago, trade between the EU and China was almost zero. Now it exceeds $1.3 billion each day. In recent years, the EU’s economic powerhouse has leapfrogged over both the U.S. and Japan to become China’s number one trade partner. China and Europe have also undertaken myriad joint ventures, including the Galileo global satellite system, which was a direct challenge to the U.S.’s gps monopoly in space. China and the EU are also cooperating in nuclear research, motivated in large part by the desire to form a strategic alliance to act as a counterweight to Washington’s nuclear power. The two economies are now intertwined to a degree that makes it difficult to imagine one without the other. And so much of that intertwining has happened only in the last few years.
To understand what the mushrooming Europe-China economic alliance means for the U.S. and the rest of the world, read Mr. Flurry’s book, Isaiah’s End-Time Vision, especially the chapter called “Building Toward a World Catastrophe.”