JOINT MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the human rights situation in Xinjiang, including the Xinjiang police files

European Parliament resolution on the human rights situation in Xinjiang, including the Xinjiang police files

(2022/2700(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions and reports on the situation in China, in particular those of 17 December 2020 on forced labour and the situation of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region[1] and of 19 December 2019 on the situation of the Uyghurs in China (China Cables)[2],

– having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948,

– having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 December 1966,

– having regard to Council Regulation (EU) 2020/1998[3] and to Council Decision (CFSP) 2020/199 of 7 December 2020[4] concerning restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989,

– having regard to Article 36 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, which guarantees all citizens the right to freedom of religious belief, and to Article 4 thereof, which upholds the rights of ethnic minorities,

– having regard to Rules 144(5) and 132(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas the promotion of and respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law should be at the centre of the EU’s relations with China, in line with the EU’s commitment to uphold these values in its external action and China’s commitment to adhere to them in its own development and international cooperation;

B. whereas the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a number of international media outlets, including the BBC, Spain’s El Pais, France’s Le Monde and Germany’s Der Spiegel, were able to examine the Xinjiang police files;

C. whereas the responsible Chinese authorities have denied the allegations of massive and structural human rights violations in Xinjiang;

D. whereas the Xinjiang police files document in detail – and, for the first time, with numerous photographs – the dimensions of the systematic, brutal and arbitrary repression in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang;

E. whereas this material demonstrates the informed role, active support and direct involvement of the Central Government in Beijing, including Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, and of leading Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region officials in directing the mass internment policy in Xinjiang; whereas the documents also point to President Xi Jinping’s informed and active support for Xinjiang’s ‘re-education’, ‘strike hard’ and ‘de-extremification’ campaigns, as well as for continued spending on additional detention facilities and staff to manage the influx of detainees;

F. whereas the Uyghur Tribunal and other credible, independent investigative bodies and research organisations have concluded that China’s serious and systemic human rights violations against the Uyghurs and other ethnic Turkic peoples amount to torture, crimes against humanity and genocide[5]; whereas the US Government and legislative bodies in the US, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Lithuania, Czechia and Ireland have made similar determinations;

G. whereas since 2017, various NGOs have repeatedly reported that China has been pursuing the mass detention of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang;

H. whereas the atrocities against the Uyghurs have to be seen in the context of China’s wider repressive and aggressive internal and external policies;

1. Condemns in the strongest possible terms the fact that the Uyghur community in the People’s Republic of China has been systematically oppressed by brutal measures, including mass deportation, political indoctrination, family separation, restrictions on religious freedom, cultural destruction and the extensive use of surveillance;

2. States that the credible evidence about birth prevention measures and the separation of Uyghur children from their families amount to crimes against humanity and represent a serious risk of genocide; calls on the Chinese authorities to cease all government-sponsored programmes of forced labour and mass forced sterilisation and to put an immediate end to any measures aimed at preventing births in the Uyghur population, including forced abortions or sanctions for birth control violations;

3. Expresses its serious concerns about the excessive and arbitrary prison sentences handed down as a result of allegations of terrorism or extremism which, according to the Xinjiang police files, meant that 22 000 persons were being detained in 2018, representing 12 % of the adult Uygur population of Konasheher County[6]; expresses its concerns over the alleged accusations of the systematic rape, sexual abuse and torture of women in China’s re-education camps;

4. Urges the Chinese Government to put an immediate end to the practice of arbitrary detention without charge, trial or conviction for criminal offences targeted against Uyghurs and other ethnic Turkic peoples, to close all camps and detention centres, and to immediately and unconditionally release those detained, and to reunite the Uyghur children who are forcibly placed in state-run boarding facilities, with their parents;

5. Recalls that China has ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which provides for the absolute and non-derogable prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment;

6. Calls on the Chinese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release the Uyghur scholar and 2019 Sakharov Prize Laureate Ilham Tohti, and to ensure, in the meantime, that he has regular and unrestricted access to his family and the lawyers of his choice;

7. Reiterates its call on the Chinese authorities to allow free, meaningful and unhindered access to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and unrestricted access to the internment camps for independent journalists, international observers and investigative bodies, including, in particular, the mandate holders of the UN Human Rights Council Special Procedures and the EU Special Representative for Human Rights, as well as to the detention centres, in order to assess the Chinese allegations that these are no longer operational;

8. Recalls the proposals to hold a UN Human Rights Council special session or urgent debate on the deteriorating human rights situation in China and on the adoption of a resolution to create a monitoring and reporting mechanism, in line with a global call by hundreds of civil society organisations from all regions;

9. Deplores the fact that, in the framework of her visit to China and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Chinese authorities did not allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to have full access to independent civil society organisations, human rights defenders and to the detention centres, which prevented her from witnessing the full scale of the political re-education camps in Xinjiang; regrets the fact that UN Human Rights Commissioner Bachelet failed to clearly hold the Chinese Government accountable for human rights abuses against the Uyghurs during her visit;

10. Urges the High Commissioner to immediately publish the long-awaited report on human rights abuses in Xinjiang, based on the available, broad and ever-increasing body of evidence of the scale and gravity of the human rights violations being committed by the Chinese authorities;

11. Urges the Member States and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to swiftly adopt additional sanctions targeting high-ranking Chinese officials, such as Chen Quanguo, Zhao Kezhi, Guo Shengkun and Hu Lianhe, as well as others identified in the Xinjiang police files, and other individuals and entities, who are involved in the systematic human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;

12. Calls on the Council to address the human rights violations in Xinjiang at the next European Council and to urge the G7 and G20 member states likewise to address the topic;

13. Calls for the EU and its Member States to take all necessary steps, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to put an end to these atrocities and ensure responsibility for the crimes committed, including through international accountability mechanisms;

14. Acknowledges that EU-China relations are increasingly characterised by economic competition and systemic rivalry; acknowledges the fact that EU leaders raised the grave violations in Xinjiang at the recent EU-China summit and stresses the importance of continuing to raise the issue on every occasion and at the highest levels;

15. Encourages the EU and the Member States to urgently identify and mitigate the risks related to Chinese foreign interference; strongly condemns all forms of transnational repression or attempts to repress Chinese dissidents or Uyghur community representatives residing abroad;

16. Calls for the EU and the Member States to suspend their extradition treaties with China and Hong Kong;

17. Calls on the Chinese authorities to allow all Uyghurs wishing to leave the People’s Republic of China to do so;

18. Calls on the Commission to propose an import ban on all products produced by forced labour and on products produced by all Chinese companies listed as exploiting forced labour; reiterates its position in favour of an ambitious corporate sustainability due diligence directive;

19. Reiterates its call for the EU and the Member States to check whether entities operating in the EU internal market are directly or indirectly involved in creating mass surveillance systems in Xinjiang, in running or building detention facilities for minority groups in Xinjiang or in conducting transactions with any person sanctioned for the abuse of Uyghurs and other minority groups in Xinjiang; stresses that the determination of these facts should trigger trade-related measures, exclusion from public procurement and sanctions;

20. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the UN Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and to the Government and Parliament of the People’s Republic of China.