When will enough finally be enough for all European Union member states to get their collective act together and start countering China's gross and brazen human rights abuses? Most recent developments show that most EU member states are unwilling to stand up to China in even the most basic ways.
The European Convention on Human Rights prohibits member states from deporting anyone to a country where they would be at grave risk of torture or other inhuman and degrading treatment. Yet last week, Maltese authorities turned down an appeal by a married Uyghur couple who had sought to overturn their denial of refugee status. Promptly detained upon the decision, they faced the imminent and irreparable risk of deportation to China if not for an urgent interim measure by the European Court for Human Rights issued this Monday. So does a third family member who remains detained, despite her ongoing asylum request.
Even more staggering is the reasoning behind the decision by the Maltese Immigration Appeals Board. In a slim, four page ruling, the Maltese Board maintained that the couple "failed to produce further evidence to substantiate" the urgency of not being deported to China—despite clear-cut evidence that the couple had suffered transnational persecution by Chinese authorities through reprisals against their family members in Xinjiang since 2017.
Surely other European authorities by now have got their facts straight?
Wishful thinking.
Over the course of the past month alone we've seen several tribunals across the EU act in very much the same manner as the Maltese Immigration Board, ignoring the European Court for Human Rights' October 2022 sentence, in which they Court decried the "general situation of violence" in China's judicial and prison system. The sentence ought to preclude anyone from being forcibly sent back to China—yet Poland is currently appealing a sentence which found in favor of a Chinese national fighting extradition.
Here is the problem: While one could and should blame the relevant judiciary and immigration boards for their failure to uphold the European Convention, the issue is primarily political. The unwillingness by Member States' Governments to put their money where their mouth is and suspend all bilateral extradition treaties with the PRC and Hong Kong is being read by local courts in those countries as a free-for-all. The very fact that these extradition treaties with China still exist means that China's requests can be granted.
On the other end of the equation, when raising the issue with European government representatives, we've heard it said time and again that their own judicial system provides sufficient safeguards to prevent any abuse. The collateral damage of defendants finding themselves in arbitrary detention, often for years on end, and the inevitable climate of fear that spreads among dissidents and refugees? Hardly worth a shrug.
All in all, it's a situation that must render us in Europe a laughingstock in Beijing, where despite the firm tones of reprimand at the umpteenth statement of "grave concern" coming from Brussels, the ongoing legitimization of its rotten judicial and police system by EU Member States is a frequent propaganda feature.
It's something to remember when Xi Jinping proudly states how "the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China over judicial, procuratorial and public security work must be upheld."
When will enough finally be enough for all EU member states to act on their commitments and end their subservient complicity to this gross human rights abuse?
Laura Harth is Campaign Director of Safeguard Defenders and Global Magnitsky Coordinator for the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
