Hungary has blocked a European Union statement criticizing China’s new security law in Hong Kong, two diplomats said, as it could undermine efforts to confront the curtailment of freedoms in Beijing in the former British colony.
The EU, which aims to support Britain and the United States in respecting human rights in Hong Kong, was due to make a statement on Monday at a meeting of EU foreign ministers, but failed to gain the necessary agreement from all 27 states. of the EU.
“Hungary’s argument was that the EU already has too many problems with China,” a senior EU diplomat told Reuters. A second senior diplomat confirmed Hungary’s blockade and position. An EU official said the statement had been withdrawn from the EU approval process.
China and the EU have imposed tit-for-tat sanctions on Western allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang on March 22.
Hungarian diplomats in Brussels were not immediately available for comment. Budapest reluctantly backed EU sanctions last month, calling them “unnecessary” and hosted China’s defense minister for a formal visit a few days after the EU sanctions decision.
Hungary is a major beneficiary of Chinese investment. In the past, both Hungary and Greece, where China’s COSCO Shipping has a majority stake in Greece’s largest port, have blocked EU declarations on China.
Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong this week warned foreign powers that they will learn a lesson if they try to intervene in China’s management of the global financial center as tensions rise between China and Western governments over the city. Read more
The West says the new security law in Hong Kong is breaking its promise to maintain a high degree of autonomy for the city since its return in 1997 to Chinese rule. China’s supporters say the law has restored order in the wake of the 2019 anti-government and anti-China protests.
The stalemate is the latest blow to the EU’s credentials as a human rights defender, said one diplomat, and raises questions about the EU’s economic “soft power”, which is based on countries that inspire it to the example by outlawing the death penalty and upholding press freedoms.
It also emphasizes the EU’s challenge to balance trade ties with China, its second largest trading partner, and its ability to speak out against the Chinese government’s crackdown in Hong Kong, 2015 human rights lawyers and Muslim Uighurs in northwest China.
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