EP resolutions

Parliament calls for closer relations with Taiwan guided by the EU's One China Policy, while issuing warnings over the continued tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

The text was approved on 21 October 2021 by 580 votes in favour, 26 against with 66 abstentions.

The EU should continue talking to China about global challenges like climate change and health crises, while raising its concerns over systemic human rights violations.

In a report adopted on Thursday 16 September 2021, by 570 votes in favour, 61 against with 40 abstentions, the European Parliament outlines six pillars on which the EU should build a new strategy to engage with China: cooperation on global challenges, engagement on international norms and human rights, identifying risks and vulnerabilities, building partnerships with like-minded partners, fostering strategic autonomy and defending European interests and values.

In a resolution adopted on Thursday 20 May 2021, Parliament condemns in the strongest possible terms the baseless and arbitrary sanctions recently imposed by the Chinese authorities on several European individuals and entities, including five MEPs. Members state that the move by Beijing is an attack on fundamental freedoms and urge the Chinese authorities to lift these wholly unjustified restrictive measures.

The text was approved in the plenary by 599 votes in favour, 30 against with 58 abstentions.

Parliament calls for the immediate and unconditional release of representatives of the democratic opposition and activists arrested in Hong Kong in the first two weeks of 2021, as well as all those previously detained on charges of subversion under the National Security Law for Hong Kong.

Parliament also urges EU countries to consider introducing targeted sanctions against individuals in Hong Kong and China, including Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, under the EU Human Rights Global Sanction Regime.

The text was approved by 597 votes in favour, 17 against and 61 abstentions.

The European Parliament resolution on forced labour and the situation of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China was adopted in the plenary on 17 December 2020.

Parliament strongly condemns the Chinese government-led system of forced labour - in particular the exploitation of Uyghur, ethnic Kazakh and Kyrgyz, and other Muslim minority groups - in factories within and outside internment camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

MEPs are deeply concerned about the increasingly oppressive regime that many religious and ethnic minorities, in particular Uyghurs and Kazakhs, are facing in mainland China. These "violate their human dignity, as well as their rights to freedom of cultural expression and religious belief, to freedom of speech and expression, and to peaceful assembly and association".

They also deeply deplore the continued persecution and the serious and systematic human rights violations that amount to crimes against humanity.

The European Parliament adopted by 565 votes to 34, with 62 abstentions, a resolution on the People's Republic of China national security law for Hong Kong and the need for the EU to defend Kong Kong's high degree of autonomy.

The text adopted in plenary had been tabled as a joint resolution by the EPP, S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA and ECR groups.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the situation of the Uyghurs in China (China Cables). The text adopted in plenary was tabled as a joint resolution by the EPP, S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA and ECR groups.

Since President Xi Jinping assumed power in March 2013, the human rights situation in China has continued to deteriorate. The situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where more than 10 million Muslim Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs live, has rapidly deteriorated in the last few years. The Chinese authorities are conducting an increasingly intense campaign of mass internment, intrusive digital surveillance. political indoctrination and forced cultural assimilation.

There is reliable information to suggest that Uyghurs and other primarily Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have been subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, egregious restrictions on religious practice and culture.

The European Parliament adopted the resolution on the situation in Hong Kong.

The text adopted in plenary had been tabled as a joint resolution by the EPP, S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA and ECR groups.

Members called for the EU, its Member States and the international community to work towards the imposition of appropriate export control mechanisms to deny China, and in particular Hong Kong, access to technologies used to violate basic rights.

Parliament also urged the systematic reform to implement direct elections for the position of Chief Executive and to the Legislative Council, as enshrined in the Basic Law, and called for agreement on an electoral system that is overall democratic, fair, open and transparent and that it grants the people of the HKSAR the right to elect candidates and to stand for election in the selection process for all leadership positions.

The European Parliament adopted by 505 votes to 18 with 47 abstentions, a resolution on China, notably the situation of religious and ethnic minorities

The resolution was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ECR, ALDE, and Greens/EFA groups.

Parliament expressed its deep concern about the increasingly repressive regime that many religious and ethnic minorities, in particular Uyghurs and Kazakhs, Tibetans and Christians face, and called on the Chinese Government to immediately end the practice of arbitrary detentions of members of the Uyghur and Kazakh minority and Tibetans, to close all camps and detention centres and to release the detained persons immediately and unconditionally.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on security threats connected with the rising Chinese technological presence in the EU and possible action on the EU level to reduce them.

The resolution was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ALDE, and Greens/EFA groups.

Parliament expressed deep concern about the recent allegations that 5G equipment developed by Chinese companies may have embedded backdoors that would allow manufacturers and authorities to have unauthorised access to private and personal data and telecommunications from the EU. It was equally concerned about the potential presence of major vulnerabilities in the 5G equipment developed by these manufacturers if they were to be installed when rolling out 5G networks in the coming years.