china says eu sanctions targeting
chinese officials
over their involvement with rights
abusers in xinjiang
are based on lies and false information
a statement from china's
vice foreign minister chin gang also
warned that the sanctions could harm
eu-china relations the statement comes a
day
after the eu sanctioned four chinese
officials and one
entity with asset freezes and travel
bans
for rights abuses against the weaker
muslim minority
in china's northwestern xinjiang region
eu foreign ministers meeting in brussels
usually they're averse to confrontation
with china
but not this time sanctions would be
imposed on beijing
package includes four individuals and
one
entity from china who have had an active
role in the design and implementation of
the chinese policies
in india we
were made aware during the meeting that
china has retaliated to those sanctions
and rather than change its policies and
address our legitimate concerns
china has against turned the blind eye
and these measures are regrettable
and unacceptable china's retaliation
blacklisting 10
eu individuals and four entities the eu
wasn't alone though in imposing
sanctions over china's human rights
abuses in xinjiang province
the uk the us and canada also approved
penalties
sanctions will be useless to china
you know it will only reunite the
chinese people
and the basic response i heard is that
the officials
feel honored to be sanctioned by
by the u.s eu or other countries because
they have successfully
safeguard national sovereignty
security and development interests the
un
says at least one million uyghur muslims
are detained in camps
with reports of forced labour torture
and sterilization
beijing denies the claims and says the
camps provide
vocational training and help in fighting
extremism
experts are questioning whether this
coordinated pressure campaign
goes far enough to cause a real impact
on china
and joining me now from brussels one of
the 10 individuals counter-sanctioned by
china mishael gala he's a member of the
european parliament and the foreign
policy spokesman
of its largest parliamentary group the
epp mr gala
welcome how do these chinese sanctions
impact your work
well de facto not it is politically
unfortunate as it makes dialogue more
difficult
it's also totally unjustified but it
doesn't impact on my work i had no
travel plans to china
i have no businesses running there and
so far i'm by no means affected
what about the european sanctions will
they pressure china
into correcting its course in xinjiang
well it is about shedding a light on
events that are ongoing
i mean the atrocities and the outrageous
things that go on in these in
internment camps and and these so-called
re-education
camps or how they ever try to dress it
up
this is these are unbearable situations
collective custody for an ethnic
and religious minority and it helps
those
who are affected those who are
struggling and fighting against these
circumstances
to get the national the necessary uh
international attention
and it was joined by the uk the u.s and
canada so it's 30 countries all together
who are on the same line i'd like to
talk a bit about the chinese counter
sanctions
now the eu last december agreed in
principle to an
investment agreement the comprehensive
agreement on investment or cai
with china now this is still to be
ratified by the european parliament of
which you are a member
do you think this agreement will now be
ratified
well uh there have been discussions
about that before
and of course these discussions will be
become stronger in the house although i
would say for me personally i would not
make my personal sensitivity as a base
for my
political attitude towards this
agreement in principle
it is something that would broaden the
market access for our enterprises and
reduce a bit
the de facto discriminations that our
enterprises have been exposed on the
chinese market in comparison
to their entrepreneurs access to our
market so in so far that is in principle
something that is more in
our interest but
speaking of that interest you have
members of the european parliament such
as yourself
who have been sanctioned by china you
actually believe there could be a
possibility that the european parliament
nonetheless
ratifies the cia i would not speculate
at this stage
we have to conduct a thorough discussion
how to react and how to
uh well finally find a solution
it is definitely not
not a way here to at this stage to
to make a definitive recommendation in
this regard
you talked about european market access
now that is in the environment where
china is the largest trading partner of
the eu
talk to us a bit about the eu's
relations
with china so you have on the one hand
the cai
which you do not want to discuss in
detail on the other hand the
eu sanctions china what is eu foreign
policy towards china
well our foreign policy i would perhaps
describe it as a triad it's
cooperate where possible compete where
needed
and confront where necessary i would say
uh that is the uh the
the framework in which we are acting
and accordingly uh we have to see in
each and every respect
what suits us best and when it's
necessary
to cooperate for instance on the climate
agenda globally
yes when it's in the framework of the
wto
where we have to get the wto standards
fully applied also in china then we need
to talk with them of course
but when it's about its assertive
policies also
to to its own neighborhood in the
southeast of asia
i think it's good to strengthen them
these countries we have cooperation with
south korea we have a free trade
agreement with vietnam
with singapore and um
uh with japan and so far uh we are also
strengthening
uh these uh contacts uh in order to
give these countries a better better
standing and also we
would hope that the asean countries
would further integrate economically and
politically if possible
what does this mean for the
trans-atlantic relationship given that
the united states uk and canada
uh imposed coordinated sanctions on
china just like the eu
well i would say that we are
in a situation where we should uh
definitely coordinate our policies in my
well
that's not on the current agenda but i
would definitely wish
that we would come at some point with
the us to a ttip
2.0 so to say a free trade agreement
with the us and we have got one with
canada we've gotten with japan
i think that is that would be the best
framework
to have uh have a better standing
towards
uh this uh china
michael gala it's pleasure talking to
you thank you so much for joining us
you