CHina’s top foreign policy chief, Wang Yi, is leaving for a trip to Europe this Tuesday. His stations: France, Italy, Hungary, the Munich Security Conference – and Russia. His mission: to improve relations with Europe. They are heavily burdened, particularly because of China’s pro-Russian stance since Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
Beijing is concerned that the United States has succeeded in getting its European allies to agree more on a common line towards China. Wang Yi, the former foreign minister who was recently promoted to head the party’s foreign affairs commission, is said to have something to say about it.
In Paris he is to prepare President Emmanuel Macron’s planned visit to China. At the Munich Security Conference, he is likely to try to give the impression that China can play a constructive role in the war in Ukraine. Rhetorically, Beijing has hinted at withdrawal movements from Russia on a number of occasions, noting with satisfaction that this is taking hold in Europe. On Monday, the Foreign Ministry only announced that the Chinese chief diplomat would visit Russia and that he would speak there about the “next phase” of relations.
He may be preparing for a visit by head of state and party leader Xi Jinping to Moscow. At least the Russian side announced one. The stopover in Moscow gives Wang Yi’s trip to Europe a “bad taste,” says Grzegorz Stec from the Mercator Institute for Chinese Studies. However, he is in line with the messages from Beijing, according to which China wants to expand relations with the EU and Russia at the same time.
Tuniyaz disrupts Wang Yi’s mission
Wang Yi’s trip to Europe is part of a charm offensive with which China wants to stabilize its foreign relations after three years of corona-related isolation. It strikes a more moderate tone than has been the case in recent years. Also towards Europe. However, another Chinese politician could unintentionally get in the way of Wang Yi’s mission. Xinjiang Governor Erkin Tuniyaz is said to be in London, Paris and Brussels these days. The protests against his visit once again draw public attention to the suppression of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The mass detentions there could constitute crimes against humanity, as the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet stated last year.
Tuniyaz is scheduled to meet with British Foreign Office officials in London this week. The Chinese embassies in Paris and Brussels have invited French politicians and EU representatives to meetings with the governor in the coming days. Tuniyaz is not coming at the invitation of the Belgian or French governments, or the European Union. Conversely, Belgian activists are trying to position the Belgian judiciary against the visitor whom they blame for human rights abuses in Xinjiang. In principle, that would be possible.
Universal jurisdiction applies in Belgium, which means that the country’s own judiciary can also investigate human rights violations in other countries. In addition, in June 2021, the Belgian parliament passed a resolution accusing China of “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang and the “serious risk of genocide”. Against this background, a phone call between Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Belgian colleague Hadja Lahbib last Friday should be seen.
British MPs call for arrest
The British Foreign Office informed human rights organizations by email that it had agreed to allow its staff to meet with Tuniyaz. They want to use it to urge China to change. In the British House of Commons, the Department defended the planned meeting as part of a policy of “robust pragmatism”. Two British MPs called for the governor to be arrested in The Times newspaper. Human rights organizations warned that China would use the governor’s visit for propaganda purposes.
Tuniyaz’s trip is also linked to Chinese efforts to persuade the European Union to lift its sanctions against those suspected of being responsible in Xinjiang. As a countermeasure, China had imposed sanctions on ten European politicians and scientists as well as four institutions. This in turn led to the EU-China deal being put on hold.
The new Chinese ambassador to the EU, Fu Cong, recently suggested that both sides should lift the sanctions at the same time. And he added: “If you think that’s not good enough, give us your suggestions and we’re ready to study them.” It was an example of the new more dovish tone now sometimes heard from Chinese diplomats . Grzegorz Stec from the Mercator Institute for China Studies sees the move as an indication that China is “looking for starting points that it can use as leverage – preferably at limited cost – to stabilize relations with the EU”.
However, the Union extended the sanctions by another year at the beginning of December. No Member State objected at the time, not even Hungary. Diplomats in Brussels say it will only be lifted if the Chinese government ends its disparaging treatment of the Uyghurs, their arbitrary detention and the practice of forced labour. However, there are no indications of this. Next month, however, the human rights dialogue between the EU and China is to be resumed. For China, this would have the advantage of limiting the human rights situation in Xinjiang to a special dialogue format.