The lifting of sanctions comes against the backdrop of a decision by United States President Donald Trump to upend international trade relations by slapping tariffs on imports, with the most punitive levies falling on China. The resulting uncertainty has jump-started EU trade negotiations with countries around the world.
Since China imposed the sanctions on the five MEPs in 2021, the Parliament has held an unofficial veto on China, conditioning any potential diplomatic contact on Beijing’s lifting the sanctions.
European Parliament lawmakers have not toned down their criticism of China, arguing that President Xi Jinping’s aggressive trade and industrial policy and human rights violations must not go unchecked.
The Parliament’s leading MEP on international trade, Bernd Lange, said that despite the green light to engage with their Chinese counterparts, many obstacles remain to a smooth EU-China trade relationship.
“We are very concerned about China’s industrial policy that leads to market distortions and creates overcapacity that floods the world market,” he said, adding he also wants to “discuss intensively” the market access barriers China has imposed.
“Facts do not change with lifting of sanctions,” said French Socialist MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, one of the sanctioned MEPs.
