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European Parliament Passes Resolution on Hong Kong Calling for ‘Urgent and Resolute’ Action

On 1 July 2020, the day after implementation of the security law, tens of thousands of Hong Kong people gathered on the streets in Causeway Bay to march. Credit: Iris Tong, Voice of America
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Dorothy Li | New Tang Dynasty

The European Parliament adopted a new resolution on July 8 to condemn the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime’s “unprecedented” crackdown of freedom in Hong Kong, calling for a boycott of the Beijing 2022 Olympics in response to human rights abuses.

The urgent resolution was passed by overwhelming majority support in Strasbourg, France, on Thursday, with 578 in favor, 29 against, and 73 abstentions.

Amid the tension between the communist Chinese regime and the EU, the non-binding resolution shows the prevailing mood in the Parliament to the European Commission and the Council of the EU.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) condemn “in the strongest terms” the forced closure of Hong Kong’s vocal pro-democracy newspaper, the Apple Daily, calling it to release detained journalists and pro-democracy protesters “immediately and unconditionally” and stop harassing and intimating media and journalist, according to the resolution.

The 28-point resolution also called for governments to impose further sanctions, decline invitations to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and provide emergency visas to help journalists and activists who fled from the city to resettle.

Apple Daily printed its last edition on June 24 after its assets were frozen and executives were arrested under the Beijing-imposed national security law (NSL) following Hong Kong police’s mass raid of its headquarters. Its founder, media tycoon Jimmy Lai, is serving a 20-month term for his involvement in pro-democracy protests of 2019.

MEPs criticized NSL as “a comprehensive assault on the city’s high degree of autonomy, rule of law and fundamental freedoms.”

“Over the course of one year, the law was applied to completely dismantle Hong Kong’s free society on almost all fronts … completely transforming Hong Kong’s political and legal landscape and stifling freedom of the press and free expression of opinions,” said the statement.

It pointed out that 128 people had been arrested under the NSL and 64 people formally charged, of whom 47 are currently in pre-trial detention.

The resolution called for governments to decline invitations to government representatives and diplomats to attend the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, “unless the Chinese Government demonstrates a verifiable improvement in the human rights situation in Hong Kong.”

“We must not make ourselves a symbol of the communist’s hand,” said German MEP Engin Eroglu in Brussels, who had pushed for the boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

“We will not stop talking about these issues here in this House as long as Hongkongers have to fight for their freedom,” he said before ending the remark.

Slovakia MEP Miriam Lexmann said on Thursday, “the CCP is engaging in the worst human rights since the Tiananmen Square Massacre.”

“The free world cannot stand by and so, on the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party, in words as in deeds, let us send a strong message: that we stand with the people of Hong Kong, we stand with all the victims of CCP terror and oppression, and with freedom-loving people everywhere,” she continued.

To end the human rights violations, MEPs claimed more targeted measures, like sanctions if necessary, will be imposed to address the repression in the far-western Xinjiang region and Hong Kong.

The EU had suspended the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment in May, after tit-for-tat sanctions imposed over the human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.

They recommended designating July 1 as ‘Stand with Hong Kong Day’ to raise awareness of the situation in Hong Kong.

The EU also welcomes cooperation with democratic allies like the United States to halt the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedom and support the democracy in Taiwan.

From The Epoch Times

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