Forced labour

Politco. 25 April 2021

Below is an article published by Politco. Photo:Nelson Ching/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

The European Union’s stance on China is hardening, and that should go down well in Washington.

Only four months after Beijing and Brussels concluded the principles of a landmark investment agreement, ahigh-level internal report seen by POLITICO shows the EU is now increasingly pessimistic about keeping business interests separate from political concerns over what it calls President Xi Jinping’s “authoritarian shift.” This tougher language reflects a new approach in the EU’s official communications on China.

South China Morning Post. 24 April 2021

Below is an article published by Soutch China Morning Post. Photo:TNS.

The United States will urge its Group of Seven (G7) allies to increase pressure on China over the use of forced labour in its northwestern Xinjiang province, home to the Muslim Uygur minority, a top White House official said on Friday.US President Joe Biden will attend a meeting of the G7 advanced economies in person in Britain in June, where he is expected to focus on what he sees as a strategic rivalry between democracies and autocratic states, particularly China.Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser to Biden and deputy director of the National Economic Council, said the G7 meeting in Cornwall would focus on health security, a synchronised economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic, concrete actions on climate change and “elevating shared democratic values within the G7”.