EU efforts to ratify China investment deal on ice after sanctions

Yahoo News. 4 May 2021

Below is an article published by Yahoo News. Photo: AFP.

The European Commission said Tuesday that efforts to win approval for the EU’s massive investment deal with China were effectively “suspended” given the soured diplomatic relations between both sides after tit-for-tat sanctions.

“We now in a sense have suspended… political outreach activities from the European Commission side,” EU Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told AFP in an interview.

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WHY WON’T ENVIRONMENTALISTS SPEAK OUT AGAINST FORCED LABOR FOR CHINA-MADE SOLAR PANELS?

Forbes. 29 April 2021

Below is an article published by Forbes. Photo:NRDC, WIKIMEDIA, JEFFREY SACHS/COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.

America’s leading climate and environmental groups including Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Energy Foundation, and Environmental Defense Fund have not responded to repeated queries about evidence that China is forcing Uyghur Muslims to choose between forced labor at factories which make solar panels which all three groups promote, or being sent to concentration camps.

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ACT TO FILE MOTION CALLING FOR DECLARATION OF ‘GENOCIDE’ IN XINJIANG, CHINA

ACT TO FILE MOTION CALLING FOR DECLARATION OF ‘GENOCIDE’ IN XINJIANG, CHINA

NZ Herlad. 27 April 2021

Below is an article published by NZ Herald. Photo:George Novak.

The Act Party today plans to ask Parliament to debate a motion to declare China’s oppression of the Uighur ethnic minority an act of “genocide”.

Its motion would ask MPs to vote on whether human rights abuses in the Chinese region of Xinjiang amount to genocide, a move that could compel the Government to take stronger action in condemning the nation, Stuff reports.

Similar motions have passed in the UK and Canada.

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EU SLAMS CHINA’S ‘AUTHORITARIAN SHIFT’ AND BROKEN ECONOMIC PROMISES

EU SLAMS CHINA’S ‘AUTHORITARIAN SHIFT’ AND BROKEN ECONOMIC PROMISES

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.

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XINJIANG: JOE BIDEN TO URGE G7 TO ACT ON CHINA’S USE OF FORCED LABOUR

XINJIANG: JOE BIDEN TO URGE G7 TO ACT ON CHINA’S USE OF FORCED LABOUR

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”.

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UYGHURS: MPS STATE GENOCIDE IS TAKING PLACE IN CHINA

UYGHURS: MPS STATE GENOCIDE IS TAKING PLACE IN CHINA

BBC. 23 April 2021

Below is an article published by BBC. Photo:PA Media.

More than a million people are estimated to have been detained at camps in the region of Xinjiang.

The motion approved by MPs does not compel the UK to take action, but is a sign of growing discontent towards the Chinese government in Parliament.

In response, China said the UK should “immediately right its wrong moves”.

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