EU clears way for China investment pact
China’s commitment to labour rights had remained a hurdle, but Europe has long sought greater access to the huge Chinese market for its companies. — Reuters pic
BRUSSELS, Dec 28 — EU member states gave political backing to Brussels’ planned investment pact with China today, clearing the way for a deal between the world’s biggest economic blocs.
At a meeting of ambassadors, the German EU presidency noted no member had “raised a stop sign and the way for a political endorsement was thus cleared”, a diplomat said.
The diplomats noted “recent positive developments” in negotiations, with China reportedly addressing concerns over the alleged use of forced labour on its farms.
This came after the Chinese foreign ministry said last week that “negotiations have entered the final stretch” — and a second EU diplomat said an agreement could now be formally announced this week.
“We have to be careful, but as long as China is in agreement, there could be an official announcement from Brussels and Beijing by the end of the week,” the senior envoy told AFP.
The deal would be a major boost for both sides and strengthen economic ties between the giants before the arrival of US president-elect Joe Biden in the White House in January.
Outgoing US leader Donald Trump has engaged in a trade war with China but his successor has also expressed concern about the EU outreach, with his team urging Brussels to consult with Washington.
The European Commission, the EU executive, had said before Christmas that the draft of the “political agreement” was “95 per cent ready” and just needed the capitals’ green light.
China’s commitment to labour rights had remained a hurdle, but Europe has long sought greater access to the huge Chinese market for its companies.
‘Systemic rival’
The head of the EU chamber of commerce in Beijing Joerg Wuttke told AFP this month that negotiators had “apparently made great strides on market access”.
As part of the accord the EU has also been pushing Beijing to reinforce respect for intellectual property, end obligations to transfer technology, reduce subsidies for public enterprises and improve on climate commitments.
While Trump’s administration has engaged in a war of words with Beijing, Brussels has taken a balanced approach.
The EU states treat China as a “systemic rival” and have expressed concerns over China’s rights record, especially its clampdown in Hong Kong and treatment of the Uighurs.
China’s increasing global assertiveness under President Xi Jinping has given some in Europe pause for thought.
But the bloc’s leading economic power Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, had made securing the deal a priority of its time at the helm.
Berlin wanted to get the agreement signed off at a joint EU-China summit in September, but the coronavirus pushed the event online and no deal was signed.
China pushed past the United States in the third quarter of this year to become the EU’s top trade partner, as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the US economy while Chinese activity rebounded. — AFP
At a meeting of ambassadors, the German EU presidency noted no member had “raised a stop sign and the way for a political endorsement was thus cleared”, a diplomat said.
The diplomats noted “recent positive developments” in negotiations, with China reportedly addressing concerns over the alleged use of forced labour on its farms.
This came after the Chinese foreign ministry said last week that “negotiations have entered the final stretch” — and a second EU diplomat said an agreement could now be formally announced this week.
“We have to be careful, but as long as China is in agreement, there could be an official announcement from Brussels and Beijing by the end of the week,” the senior envoy told AFP.
The deal would be a major boost for both sides and strengthen economic ties between the giants before the arrival of US president-elect Joe Biden in the White House in January.
Outgoing US leader Donald Trump has engaged in a trade war with China but his successor has also expressed concern about the EU outreach, with his team urging Brussels to consult with Washington.
The European Commission, the EU executive, had said before Christmas that the draft of the “political agreement” was “95 per cent ready” and just needed the capitals’ green light.
China’s commitment to labour rights had remained a hurdle, but Europe has long sought greater access to the huge Chinese market for its companies.
‘Systemic rival’
The head of the EU chamber of commerce in Beijing Joerg Wuttke told AFP this month that negotiators had “apparently made great strides on market access”.
As part of the accord the EU has also been pushing Beijing to reinforce respect for intellectual property, end obligations to transfer technology, reduce subsidies for public enterprises and improve on climate commitments.
While Trump’s administration has engaged in a war of words with Beijing, Brussels has taken a balanced approach.
The EU states treat China as a “systemic rival” and have expressed concerns over China’s rights record, especially its clampdown in Hong Kong and treatment of the Uighurs.
China’s increasing global assertiveness under President Xi Jinping has given some in Europe pause for thought.
But the bloc’s leading economic power Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, had made securing the deal a priority of its time at the helm.
Berlin wanted to get the agreement signed off at a joint EU-China summit in September, but the coronavirus pushed the event online and no deal was signed.
China pushed past the United States in the third quarter of this year to become the EU’s top trade partner, as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the US economy while Chinese activity rebounded. — AFP
EU better be careful, Bully TIPU.....
ReplyDeleteQUOTE
Wuhan Covid citizen journalist jailed for four years in China crackdown
Prosecution of 10 Hong Kongers detained in mainland China after allegedly attempting to flee to Taiwan also began on Monday
Helen Davidson in Taipei
Mon 28 Dec 2020
Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer and citizen journalist who was arrested in May while reporting from Wuhan, has been sentenced to four years in jail.
Zhang was arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – an accusation commonly used against dissidents, activists and journalists – with her video and blog reports from the Wuhan lockdown. Last month she was charged with disseminating false information.
On Monday afternoon, just hours after the trial began, Zhang’s lawyer said she had been sentenced to four years in jail.
The prosecution of 10 Hong Kongers detained in mainland China after allegedly attempting to flee to Taiwan also began Monday, amid a crackdown apparently timed with the Christmas period to avoid western scrutiny.
Ordinary people saying something casually in WeChat might be summoned and admonished,” she said in one report. “Because everything is undercover, this is the problem this country is facing now.”
In others she accused authorities of violating basic rights of people, and called for the release of other citizen journalists who had been arrested for reporting from Wuhan.
Also on Monday, the trial began for 10 Hong Kongers who were detained after allegedly trying to reach Taiwan by boat in August. The group is charged with organising or participating in an illegal border crossing.
UNQUOTE
A very one-sided katak-ised fart from a blurred demoNcratic mfer feeding on Formosa shits!
DeleteEU better be careful.
ReplyDeleteAsia Big Bully usual SOP is sign on piece of paper, but in actual practice, they will bring up a lot of "Complications", "Procedural Rules" , "must respect Chinese sensitivities".
It will be years and years before you actually get any actual access to the market.
Look at the Climate Change issue. For all the chest thumping by the CCP, in actual fact, they committed to continue increasing their CO2 emissions until 2030 - another 10 years.
While the Bidin fella pledged to destroy the US fossil fuel industry, reopening themselves to energy dependence on unstable countries.
Ditto with the fart from that blurred mfer.
DeleteKatak seperigi!
Almost a done deal - eat yr heart out, u anglophile glorifying katak!
DeleteBTW, at this juncture in time, w/o the trading activities with China, almost all other nations would see their national coffer depleted & replaced by printed fiat money - a foreseeable economic collapse of humongous proportion!
our zombie love vellfire, ccp zombie love mercedes.
ReplyDeleteMercedes r just common taxi level vehicle type in many parts of the world.
ReplyDeleteWhat so special, except to the f*cked katak.
There r more made find China car models sold in China than all the foreign brands - assemblies/made/imported into China.
This katak-ised fart is so typically of the 犬养mfer's fame regurgitated one-liner diarrhea. 江郎才尽 - running out of fart making materials!
ReplyDeleteMmm...'sinking heart' news to these OCBC cinakoois here...OMG...China and EU in an investment pact...OMG, what's happening ?! EU ought to join forces with our resident Bullying Hegemon Rogue to sanction evil China such that it will become the Sick Man of Asia once again ! hehe, eat your heart out once again....have a banana on me, cinakoois
BullyTipuRampas TS : " EU better be careful.."
BigotMonstrosity : " EU better be careful."
Ha ha ha ha....these cinakoois amazingly echoed each other in unison, farting the same farts incubated too long in that stinking echo chamber
And as expected, they invariably deploy their deflection tactics...climate change issues, rioters fleeing to Taiwan, mad hatter Zhang Zhan...podah la, hehe
Bet these Dumb&Dumber deliberately omit to mention these few interesting facts :
Zhang Zhan was arrested for this simple reason - she is stubbornly subversive and not merely 'a troublemaker' as the West made it out to be.
She made 167 reports on COVID 19.
She reported her theories as if these were indisputable facts. For instance she reported that real COVID deaths were 4 times or 5 times more and that the Chinese Government was making bodies disappear. She never said this was her opinion. But like Trump and his lawyers, like Pompeo and his supporters, no evidence were given by this mad hatter for her opinion which she obviously treated as facts, or rather as " alternative facts"
She reported that one particular family had been forced to disappear (basically meaning killed) - yet they returned back in September 2020 - all of them.
She took photos in the city of Wuhan during the height of the lockdown when there was not a soul in the streets but she claimed this was due to the people cowering in fear of the evil CCP, trying to escape from a city-wide lockdown ! mad as a hatter, hehe
She has not a shred of evidence to justify her claims, instead she caused panic for over 100 Million terrified citizens who actually believed that body bags were floating all over the country.
She was recalcitrant, a serial offender. She had already been warned and detained repeatedly in the preceding years, and her license to practice law revoked. She roamed about calling herself 'a citizen journalist' but searches reveal that she wasn't officially accredited to any news media
Her claim to fame? Her videos and commentary of Wuhan under lockdown posted to YouTube.
Now, how did a middle-age unemployed woman manage to make her way into Wuhan in the midst of the world's most stringent lockdown and freely travel around the city, breaking social distancing rules and endangering numerous people? Residents couldn't even walk their dogs and this lady was all over the city for 3 months! Not just one day or for a few days, but for 76 days, she roamed about in Wuhan and harassed police officers, knocking down barricades, insisting to go into restricted areas, refusing to follow lockdown procedures. How did she enter the city? How did she evade capture? Who helped her? Who paid her expenses? Why is the cottage industry promoting her cause like she is a rock star?
So of course now we have to ask...who really is this mad hatter ?
( continue..)
Who really is Zhang Zhan ? It was said that she was a former Falun Gong devotee but ever since the cult religious group moved en masse to the US, she later 'converted' to Christianity, staying back in China. She is a Christian zealot with a strong tendency towards martyrdom. She made hunger strikes several times during detentions.
ReplyDeleteShe had psychiatric assessments during the detention since she kept talking about Jesus, the Bible, God etc. In one instance, she mentioned the word "God" 62 times non stop.
She claimed she is a devout religious woman and reportedly said " If Covid is a life threatening virus, then isn't the social mechanism of materialism we pursued is also a fatal virus ?" In one picture, she was seen holding an open umbrella with these words written on the umbrella : End Socialism, Take Down CPC
It is no coincidence that Zhang Zhan very often conducts interviews with Epoch Times ( which is a media outfit from Falun Gong, no kidding !) and she would quote chapter and verse from this fake news China-basher 'specialist', and using news source the likes of the US' funded VOA, FRA ( Voice of America, Free Radio Asia), CNN etc, the usual suspects.
Fang Fang, another obsessive CCP critic, is regarded as a vile person by most people in China but regarded highly by a small minority and a darling of the West. And yet she is a free woman. Why is that so ? Precisely because she did not go around damaging public property, violating lockdown rules in the most critical and tested times for the Chinese during the pandemic and fabricating lies about the numbers of Covid deaths causing panic and chaos; and advocating for the taking down of socialism and the CCP.
If the foreign media are so concerned about 'oppressive' governments, why, oh why, are they mute and dumb on the Indian government jailing 55 Indian reporters for reporting on Covid-19 ? Oh wait....India is an ally of the West and the US is using India as a tool to contain China, so India is safe from any sanctions and criticism from the Almighty Bully AmeriKKKa and her cowardly allies.
Four years for cooling her heels in jail is damn lenient, considering all that she had done. She definitely did more than just " picking quarrels and provoking trouble", as the West likes to spin it such. The bananas here are such dumb gullible guppies. As for the rest of the mewing about the rioters fleeing, climate change issue....surely you won't want to be embarrassed further if I were to launch into these too ? hehe