Marco Respinti

Bitterwinter.org

Finally, the European Union (EU) gets things rolling. On April 18, during its plenary session, the European Parliament (EP) approved an urgent resolution requesting attention on the awful situation of human rights in China and requiring action, notably, on behalf of religious and ethnic minorities.

Particularly important and to the point are a few provisions in the text – as Marco Respinti from China advocacy news outlet, Bitterwinter pointed out in his op-ed article.

Drawing on previous documents, Article 2 of the new resolution “[c]alls on the Chinese Government to immediately end the practice of arbitrary detentions, without any charge, trial or conviction for criminal offence, 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.”

This is highly relevant, of course, because it acknowledges and mentions camps and detention centers. In fact, these are the infamous transformation through education camps, spread all over Xinjiang (that many Uyghurs prefer to call East Turkestan) and disguised by the Chinese Communist regime as “professional and training schools,” while in reality, they are concentration camps.

As a matter of fact, the resolution’s strong Article 2 is echoed throughout the entire text of the document, where many more direct references are made to the unbearable situation of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslim ethnic minorities who are regularly harassed and cracked down on.

But not only. Particularly meaningful is Article 4, which extends the concern beyond Muslim groups and even names some prisoners of conscience unlawfully detained in China, asking Beijing to release them immediately.

Tibetan Buddhists are extensively mentioned in Article 8, which “[c]alls on the Chinese authorities to uphold the linguistic, cultural, religious and other fundamental freedoms of Tibetans, and to refrain from settlement policies in favour of the Han people and to the disadvantage of the Tibetans, as well as from forcing Tibetan nomads to abandon their traditional lifestyle.”

Article 3 extends concern to other religious groups and “[c]alls for the immediate release of arbitrarily detained people, prisoners of conscience, including practitioners of Falun Gong and for a stop to be put to enforced disappearances, and insists that all individuals are able to choose their legal representative, have access to their family and to medical assistance, as well as have their cases investigated.”

Christians are expressly defended in Article 7, which “[c]alls on the Chinese authorities to end their campaigns against Christian congregations and organisations and to stop the harassment and detention of Christian pastors and priests and the forced demolitions of churches.”

And Article 5 even touches on the delicate and urgent question of foreign nationals detained for political reasons in China (even if China makes excuses for that), calling “[…] for the immediate release of the Swedish national book publisher Gui Minhai and the two Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.”

Just words, as usual, one may comment. No, not only. Not this time. At least in the intentions of the MEPs who passed this urgent resolution. In fact, the document urges to action the international community explicitly and the European Parliament specifically.

If this happens, it will be a single significant accomplishment. 

But even more action is envisioned in the resolution, as Article 20 calls on the European Council ‒ which defines the EU’s overall political direction and priorities, and it is now chaired by former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk ‒ “[…] to consider adopting targeted sanctions against officials responsible for the crackdown in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.” 

All this notwithstanding, we give the approved resolution two cheers, not three.

We can’t refrain from noting that in the document, no reference is made to several religious groups savagely persecuted in today’s China. 

Another highly critical element in the resolution is point D of the premises. It states that “[…] while an accord was reached between the Holy See and the Chinese Government in September 2018 concerning the appointments of bishops in China, the Christian religious communities have been facing increasing repression in China, with Christians, both in underground and government-approved churches, being targeted through the harassment and detention of believers, the demolition of churches, the confiscation of religious symbols and the crackdown on Christian gatherings.”

This is all true, but also ambiguous because of the way it is phrased. The implied Christians are obviously the Protestants, who suffer very much, especially if they belong to the dissident house churches.

But in the text, they seem to be opposed to the Catholics, supposedly living in better condition because of the mentioned accord. This is incorrect.

For sure, the Vatican-China Deal of 2018 obtained the historical pastoral goal of reuniting the Roman Catholic Church for the first time since the creation of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), which followed the expulsion of the Apostolic Nuncio in 1951, after the Communists gained power in 1949. But the CCP is politically and ideologically interpreting the agreement with the Holy See as an order given to all Catholics to join the CPCA, the Vatican giving the green light.  But his has never occurred, and thus, the underground Catholics, doomed to be extinguished in the plans of the Party, are still persecuted, arrested and re-educated if they resist. It’s no detail or triviality; unless this problem is properly addressed and clarified at all international levels, the Chinese regime will keep on persecuting the Catholics with the “permission” of the world.

You can read the full article here.

You can access the resolution here.