EU Looks To Decouple From China Over Human Rights Abuses

Welcome to Sound of Hope News, I'm Golden Lee. After months of negotiation, the EU will introduce new anti-labor and anti-economic coercion bills in September. This ramps up the tensions between the EU and China, as many see the move as targeted towards China due to their record of human rights violations. In July of this year, China had agreed to coordinate economic policies with the EU. It was silent on an investment deal frozen by disputes over geopolitics, human rights and the war on Ukraine. In March of 2021, Beijing imposed sanctions on US politicians and diplomatic bodies in response to Western sanctions towards Chinese officials accused of running concentration camps in China's Xinjiang region. China denies any wrongdoing in the ongoing violation of human rights in the region. Brussels will present its new bill in early September, a move that will target products made by persecuted Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang concentration camps. The hawks and pragmatists in the EU are divided over their stance on the Chinese Communist Party. The pragmatists, like export-driven Germany, are afraid the EU cannot afford to upset China while it's cutting trade and energy ties with Russia, while the hawks argue that the EU should learn from its dealing with Russia and move as quickly as possible away from the CCP and closer to partners with similar values. A European trade official highlighted the need for more options and the strengthening of the EU's trade defense, saying we are fully committed to ramping up our trade defense toolbox and won't change that strategy all of a sudden over Ukraine or Taiwan, as reported by Politico.