Hungary has blocked a European Union statement criticizing China’s new security law in Hong Kong, two diplomats said, in an attempt to undermine Beijing’s approach to freedoms in the former British colony.
The EU, which aims to support Britain and the United States in upholding human rights in Hong Kong, was scheduled to make its statement at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday, but failed to secure the necessary agreement of all 27 EU countries.
“Hungary’s argument was that the EU has too many problems with China,” a senior EU diplomat told Reuters. A second senior diplomat confirmed the blockade and Hungary’s position. An EU official said the statement had been withdrawn from the EU’s approval process.
China and the EU imposed direct sanctions on March 22 over Western allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang.
Hungarian diplomats in Brussels were not immediately available for comment. Budapest reluctantly backed EU sanctions last month, calling them “pointless”, and received an official visit from China’s defense minister days after the EU sanctions decision.
Hungary is a major recipient of Chinese investments. In the past, both Hungary and Greece, where China’s COSCO Shipping has a majority stake in Greece’s largest port, have blocked EU statements about China.
Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong this week warned foreign powers that they would learn a lesson if they attempted to interfere in China’s management of the global financial center, as tensions between China and Western governments escalated over the city. read more
The West says Hong Kong’s new security law breaks a promise to maintain a high degree of autonomy for the city since its return to Chinese rule in 1997. China’s supporters say the law has restored order after massive protests against the government and China in 2019.
The deadlock is the final blow to the EU’s credentials as a human rights defender, one diplomats said, raising questions about the EU’s economically powerful ‘soft power’, which depends on inspiring countries to lead its example. by prohibiting the death penalty and upholding press freedoms.
It also underscores the EU’s challenge to balance business ties with China, its second largest trading partner, and its ability to speak out against the Chinese government’s crackdown in Hong Kong, against human rights lawyers since 2015 and against Muslim Uyghurs in northwestern China.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Principles of Trust.