EU, UK, Canada, US Impose Sanctions on China

From left to right: Jean-Claude Juncker, former President of the European Commission, Xi Jinping, President of China, and Donald Tusk, former President of the European Council at an EU-China summit in 2016. (Flickr)

The EU sanctioned China over human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, a majority-Muslim ethnic group generally located in Northwest China, on March 22. This move marks the first time the EU has sanctioned China for such abuses since the Chinese military violently cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The EU announced the sanctions following a report published on March 8 by the Newlines Institute, a non-partisan think tank in Washington DC, which reported that China “is committing an ongoing genocide against the Uyghur ethnic group.” The report estimates that the Chinese government is holding more than one million Uyghurs in detention camps in the region of Xinjiang, and it lists allegations of forced labor and sterilization. The report also describes local officials forcibly removing Uyghur children from their parents to place them in orphanages, and demolishing mosques, where Uyghurs worship, in Xinjiang. 

The Chinese government denied the accusations, maintaining that the camps provide education and vocational training and are necessary to deter terrorism. EU ambassadors planned to visit Xinjiang to see conditions in the camps firsthand, but China canceled the visit on March 17 after ambassadors requested a meeting with Ilham Tohti, a jailed Uyghur academic.

The EU’s March 22 sanctions subject four Chinese officials and one Chinese company deemed responsible for human rights violations to an asset freeze and a travel ban, meaning Chinese officials involved in the abuses against Uyghurs cannot travel to EU countries while the sanctions are in place. Following the EU’s announcement, the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. enacted similar measures that same day.

In response, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the EU of hypocrisy and interfering in China’s internal affairs. The Ministry then announced its own sanctions on ten individuals, including members of the European Parliament (MEPs), and four entities, including a think tank and a non-profit organization, that China accuses of “maliciously spread[ing] lies and disinformation,” banning them from traveling to China or conducting business with the country indefinitely.

Raphaël Glucksmann, one of the sanctioned MEPs, tweeted that the sanctions against him were “a Medal of Honour.” Sjoerd Wiemar Sjoerdsma, a sanctioned Dutch politician, wrote on Twitter that “[a]s long as China commits genocide on the Uyghurs, I will not remain silent.” It should be noted that the Netherlands is the only European country to label China’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide, though Canada and the U.S. have also used the term.

(Twitter)

The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which China is a signatory, compels involved parties to prevent and punish genocide. As a result, countries have often hesitated to use the term, fearing that doing so would compel them to intervene.  

Professor Elisa Massimino, the Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Chair in Human Rights at Georgetown University Law Center, says that, while work to compile evidence of genocide is important, excessive focus on the term is misplaced. “Even short of genocide, there are clearly crimes against humanity going on, which should also prompt the international community to act.” Instead of debating whether or not to label China’s actions as genocide, Massimino says, “much more energy and creativity ought to be spent” on developing and implementing measures “designed to end these horrific abuses against the Uyghur people.”

The recent sanctions alone may not be strong enough to pressure China into compliance with international law. They do, however, send a powerful message to China that the EU, and its allies, are paying attention to what happens in Xinjiang.