The protests in Hong Kong, triggered by the amendment of the so-called Extradition Bill, have been going on for 5 months. The protests began with massive demonstrations, general strikes, city-scale human chains, but turned into an increasing use of violence on both the protesters’ and the police’s side. Even though the bill was withdrawn, protests are still demanding for full democracy and an independent investigation of the excessive use of force by the police. These events have turned into a human rights crisis for ordinary Hongkongers, due to several police actions, such as medical care providers and reporters being arrested not mentioning the pollution from the dioxin being spread by the use of tear gas, and even an alleged rape case. Hong Kong citizens have cried for help from the international community. The US actively responded by adopting, on 27 November the so –called “Hong Kong Human Right and Democracy Act [Prasso, 2019; Hao, 2019].
If the EU has not remained silent, the question looms whether it has different priorities when compared to the ones of the US towards China. While displaying normative power ambitions meant to promote universal values, the EU has yet to come to respond with respect to China. The question, then, remains: which position should the EU adopt on the question of the ongoing protests in Hong Kong?
To be fair, the EU did respond, but such response came from different institutional actors. In July, the European Parliament was the first one to react by adopting, on 17 July, a motion calling on the Honk Kong government to fully withdraw the bill, and called on the European External Action Service (EEAS) to halt all export of crowd control equipment to Hong Kong [European Parliament, 2019a]. On 17 August, Francesca Mogherini, EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security issued a joined statement with her Canadian counterpart, Chrystia Freeland, (External Action Service, 2019a] expressing deep concerns for the situation in Hong Kong and calling all parties to engage a constructive dialogue in view of resolving the crisis in October. In another informal of EU foreign ministers meeting on 30 August, Frederica Mogherini stated that the EU will continue follow the situation closely while stressing the strong and remarkable unity between the EU member states on the issue [External Action Service, 2019b]. In September, the EP held a debate in a plenary session on the situation in Hong Kong. On 16 September, a debate on the situation in Hong Kong was held during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. [European Parliament, 2019b]. The most recent declarations by the EU HR, using equally strong rhetoric, reiterates the calls for restraints by the police forces and the EU support for a de-escalation of the violence (External Action Service, 2019]. In short, all these resolutions and statements reflect the genuine EU concerns about the situation in Hong-Kong. These statements, also highlighted the question of fundamental freedoms, and the need to preserve the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong guaranteed under ‘One Country, Two systems’ principle which agreed between China and British by Sino-China Joint Declaration.
China responded very strongly to the EUs concerns by stating that the events in Hong-Kong should be considered as purely internal and that the EU had no right to interfere. According to the Chinese Mission to the EU, the motion from EP in July was “a prejudiced and hypocritical act of double standard” to interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs while leaving a lot to be desired from the EU; urged the EU to seize the opportunity for developing EU-China relations yet the newly elected EP adopting this resolution would be a “wrong signal” for the relationship, and reiterated the need for the EU international legal provision norms governing international relations, and most specifically the respect of Chinese national sovereignty [Mission of PRC to the EU, 2019a.] Any violations of these principles would, according to the Chinese mission to the EU, considerably damage the bilateral EU-China relations. Finally, instead of denouncing them, the EU should view the actions of the police to protect life should, according to China, be praised. In summary, message was very clear: “The EU has no right to lecture others” Instead, the EU should not interfere in Chinese affairs and should think about future economic cooperation with China [Mission PRC, 2019b]
The Hong Kong affair is a Chinese internal issue. The EU confirmed this by highlighting the city’s high degree of autonomy under the principle of “One Country, Two Systems”. “One country”; i.e., there is only one China, and the EU has clearly accepted its dominion over Hong Kong. Therefore, it seems that the EU does not, by any means, want to challenge the sovereignty of China, according from its responses. The EU is concerned with Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity, and the human rights of Hongkongers.
The EU’s stakes in Hong Kong are important. As early as in 1999, the European Community has signed “Agreement on Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters (CCMAA)” with Hong Kong and started customs cooperation. The bilateral trading relationship is stable, and both hold regular meetings (every two years) to their bilateral cooperation (Anonymous, 2019). In 2017, Hong Kong was the third-most popular FDI destination for the EU according to European Commission [European Commission, 2019] and even though the trading relationship is less important than the one between the EU and China, Hong Kong still plays a role as an economic hub in Asia [European Commission, 2019].
Hong Kong also shares similar values with the EU. We can see such proximity in the bilateral relationship between the EU and Hong Kong. As Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU Trade Commissioner mentioned a speech – on “EU-HK: Allies in Openness” –both share similar values – that is, a belief in an open, global and well-regulated trading market [European Commission, 2018]. This relation is even stronger when it comes to trade wars and protectionism. Finally, as a separate member of the WTO, Hong Kong has proved to be an important partner of the EU in view of reforming the WTO by sharing the same views on the importance of reforms and openness. In short, EU-Hong Kong relations are not only important for stability and prosperity but also for the defense of human rights and freedoms.
When it comes to relations between the EU and China, these have developed at a very quick pace. Following the adoption of the “EU-China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation”, a comprehensive cooperation that will draw the two closer is expected In a nutshell, China and EU are the biggest traders in the world, China is the EU’s biggest source of imports and its second-biggest export one. Despite of that important trade relationship, the EU-Chines strategic agenda stresses the fact that the human rights situation in the country has deteriorated and that the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong Basic Law also needs to be respected (External Action Service, 2013].
Foreign Policy of the EU has been viewed by some as reflecting a normative power whose aim is to promote universal values of human rights and fundamental freedoms. These values are mentioned in the Treaty of European Union as one of the objectives of the EU’s external policies. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that the EU is concerned with the respect of basic human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Hong Kong.
Then, the question asked at the beginning: which position should the EU have adopted? The standpoint of the EU has been clear – both prosperity of the City and protection of human rights are its main objectives. On the moral side, the EU has ten good reasons to stand with Hong Kong. On the economic side, one should keep in mind the harmful effects of a possible worsening in EU-China relations. One way to square that circle may be for the EU to keep the closes possible ties with China. According to Frederica Mogherini: “we will continue to pass messages publicly and privately and continue to work for the situation” [External Action Service, 2019b].
Indeed when there is a conflict between two points of view, close relations may prove more useful to sway the opinion of the other rather than a complete break up. The EU has long exerted its normative and transformative power through building relations and partnerships. These make the main channel of power available to the EU that makes it a very different actor in international relations than the ones viewed from the traditional realist perspective [Manners, 2002].
References
Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on Hong Kong. (2019, November 18). Retrieved from https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2019/11/18/declaration-by-the-high-representative-on-behalf-of-the-european-union-on-hong-kong/.
European Commission [2019b]. EU and China. Link: https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/china/
European Commission [2018]. EU-Hong Kong: Allies in Openness. Speech by European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström. Link: https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/html/156944.htm
European Parliament [2019a], Joint Motion for a Resolution on the situation in Hong Kong, 17 July. Link: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/RC-9-2019-0013_EN.html
European Parliament [2019b]. Debate on the situation in Hong Kong, 16 Spetember. Link: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/agenda/briefing/2019-09-16/6/debate-on-the-situation-in-hong-kong
External Action Service [2013]. EU-China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation, 23 November. Link: https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/china_en/15398/EU-China%202020%20Strategic%20Agenda%20for%20Cooperation
External Action Service [2019a]. Joint statement by Federica Mogherini and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Chrystia Freeland on Hong Kong, 17 August. Link: https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/66478/joint-statement-federica-mogherini-and-minister-foreign-affairs-canada-chrystia-freeland-hong_en
External Action Service [2019b]. Remarks by HR/VP Federica Mogherini at the press conference following the informal meeting of EU Foreign Ministers (Gymnic ), 30 August. Link: https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/66820/remarks-hrvp-federica-mogherini-press-conference-following-informal-meeting-eu-foreign_en.
Hao, N. [2019]. Hong Kong Woman Alleges That Police Gang-Raped Her While She Was Detained. The Epoch Times, 12 November. Link: https://www.theepochtimes.com/hong-kong-woman-alleges-that-police-gang-raped-her-while-she-was-detained_3144416.html
Manners, I [2002]. Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms? JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 40, 235-258
Mission of the PRC to the EU [2019a]. Spokesperson of the Chinese Mission to the EU Speaks on a Question Concerning the European Parliament Resolution on the Situation in Hong Kong. 19 July. Link: http://www.chinamission.be/eng/fyrjh/t1681950.htm
Mission of the PRC to the EU [2019b]. Spokesperson of the Chinese Mission to the EU Speaks on a Question Concerning Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on Hong Kong, 18 November. Link: http://www.chinamission.be/eng/fyrjh/t1717443.htm
Prasso, S. [2019]. Millions in Hong Kong Have Been Exposed to Tear Gas Since.Bloomberg, June. 5 November. Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-05/up-to-88-of-hong-kong-population-exposed-to-tear-gas-since-june