Fundamental Freedoms Continue to Deteriorate in China, EU Says

Brussels has urged the CCP to end inhumane practices such as arbitrary detention, forced disappearance, and torture during a human rights dialogue.

Chinese lawyer Yu Wensheng in Beijing on Jan. 12, 2017. Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images

The European Union urged the Chinese regime to stop its human rights violations in China during a dialogue in Brussels on June 13, according to the bloc’s diplomatic arm.

The European External Action Service (EEAS) said in a June 14 statement that its delegation met with Chinese officials a day prior and reiterated the EU’s “serious concerns” about the “ongoing deterioration of fundamental freedoms in China.”

This includes the suppression of religious, ethnic, and linguistic minorities in China by the regime. The EU has urged the Chinese regime to end its practices such as arbitrary detention, forced disappearance, torture, and ill-treatment, the statement said.

In addition to rights violations at home, the EU has called attention to the regime’s repression beyond its borders, accusing Beijing of increasingly resorting to transnational repression to pressure and control Chinese nationals abroad, according to the statement.

The EU delegation brought up several individual cases with their Chinese counterparts, seeking the immediate release of those detained “solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights,” the statement said.

Among those singled out by the EU was Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, who is currently serving a 10-year jail term for “providing intelligence” to foreigners. Gui, who has been held in China since 2015 after being abducted by Chinese agents from his holiday home in Thailand, previously ran a bookstore in Hong Kong, publishing books critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime.

The EU officials flagged cases of imprisoned Uyghur intellectuals Ilham Tohti, Gulshan Abbas, and Rahile Dawut, as well as detained Uyghur activists Hushtar Isa and Yalkun Isa, according to the statement.

Brussels also called for the immediate release of human rights defenders and lawyers, including Xu Zhiyu and Ding Jiaxi, who received sentences of 14 years and 12 years, respectively, in 2023.

The EU’s list also included legal professional Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan. The couple was taken by Chinese police while en route to a meeting with EU diplomats in Beijing in 2023. Yu was sentenced to three years in prison in 2024 after being convicted of inciting subversion of state power, a vague national security charge often used against dissidents. While Xu has been released after serving a 21-month jail term, EU officials said she is still subject to surveillance and a travel ban.

Human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng in a file photo. Verna Yu/AFP/Getty Images

The plight of Gao Zhisheng, who has been missing for eight years, was also raised by the EU during the meeting. Gao is a human rights lawyer who defended Chinese citizens targeted by the CCP for their religious and spiritual beliefs, such as Christians and Falun Gong practitioners.

The CCP did not show signs that it would acknowledge the concerns raised by Brussels.

According to the summary of the meeting published on the foreign ministry’s website, Chinese officials told their European counterparts that affairs related to Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, as well as several specific judicial cases, are “purely Chinese internal affairs that allow for no outside interference.”

The regime urged Brussels to “respect its path for human rights development” and stop what it called “politicizing human rights issues and applying double standards,” the statement said.

This year’s Human Rights Dialogue in Brussels marked the 40th such exchange between EU and Chinese officials, following a field visit to South Tyrol in Italy on June 11.

Rights groups have repeatedly urged the EU to take more impactful measures instead of engaging with the CCP at a low level, citing the limited impact of past dialogues.

Human Rights Watch said in a June 12 statement that “criticism behind closed doors yields no concrete improvements” in China under the CCP’s rule.

By relegating human rights to “a lower-level and private dialogue,” the EU and its 27 member states risk “complicity in Beijing’s attempts to marginalize and delegitimize human rights,” the group said.

“[T]he EU should be incorporating human rights across all areas of engagement with China, particularly at high-level meetings, to break the artificial silos created by separately addressing unfair trade practices, security concerns, foreign interference, and economic security and sovereignty.”