The just sanctions against China and the inconsistent diplomatic behavior of the European Union

The ferocious repression of Turkish-speaking Chinese of Islamic religion, a majority ethnic group in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, has resulted in sanctions by the European Union; the sanctions target four citizens and officials of the People’s Republic of China for protracted human rights violations perpetrated through mass deportation, arbitrary arrests and degrading treatment, held against ethnic Uyghur Chinese citizens. The Chinese government’s policy of assimilation, with no respect for humanitarian rights, of this part of the population has been in place for some time, but the European sanctions are only now coming and have the distinction of being the first since the Tiananmen massacres in 1998. Throughout this period China has taken on a role of strategic partner in the European economy, which it was better not to contradict. In reality, these last sanctions issued are in any case more symbolic than effective, given that they have affected only four Chinese citizens and not China as a national entity; however, it is implied that the message for Beijing was a heavy criticism of its sovereignty: an inconceivable insult to the Chinese government, which regards its internal affairs as an inviolable matter. China’s official response was an out-of-proportion retaliation, which aimed to hit the European institutions directly, sanctioning ten people, which include parliamentarians and officials from Brussels. The European Union has consistently applied what it has already applied to Russia and other countries for the repressions that have resulted in human rights violations. European action was joined by the USA and the United Kingdom, who did not want to miss the opportunity to show Beijing the renewed Western cohesion, especially for Washington it is essential to show itself on the front line against what it considers the greatest systemic opponent of this. historical phase, both for economic and geostrategic reasons. The Western compaction has caused greater closeness between China and Russia, with Moscow now, however, in a subordinate condition to Beijing, while it cannot fail to be noted that Chinese activism has attracted the enemies of the USA to a personal area of ​​influence, including the other Iran and North Korea, with which it has commercial relations despite American and European sanctions. Regarding the European sanctions, it is necessary to make some reflections, since the decision of Brussels is correct in an absolute sense, it will be necessary to verify how this situation of diplomatic tension will evolve, that is, if it will also have repercussions on too many commercial relations between the two parties and which, without ‘other, they suit Europe, but more and for various reasons, including not only economic ones, they suit China more. The situation that has arisen in the Western field and, above all, with the change in the White House, could loosen the ties, on the part of Brussels, with China and thus allow greater autonomy, economic and productive in favor of Europe. . If you want to take the path of protecting human rights, even outside your own territories, decrease trade relations with China and its way of being, i.e. distance yourself from it in a significant and not only symbolic way, appears to be an obligatory path. . If the intentions and also the European behaviors regarding the protection of rights seem necessary and acceptable, the rapprochement with Turkey appears less clear, however, which certainly has instrumental reasons on which one can only give a strongly negative judgment. Financing Ankara to keep refugees going to Europe on its territory can be a practical reason but one that is in contrast with the desire to defend human rights: a contradiction too obvious not to look at Chinese sanctions with different eyes; moreover, to get closer to a regime that massacres the Kurds, towards whom Europe, but also the entire West, should have only feelings of gratitude and therefore of protection and which goes towards the disavowal of the Istanbul treaty against female violence, appears a contradiction even without wanting to set themselves up as defenders of human rights. The perception is that of a European institution with a wavering attitude, which is unable to maintain a straight line, a behavior consistent with its aims: according to this, Turkey should have the same treatment as China and it would still be little (moreover the sanctions against China are, it has already been said, little more than symbolic). The hope is not to encounter a disappointment, which for the subject matter could have consequences on the trust of citizens, which cannot be recovered.