{"id":609116,"date":"2025-12-03T07:50:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T07:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/609116\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T07:50:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T07:50:17","slug":"france-macron-should-address-repression-in-china-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/609116\/","title":{"rendered":"France: Macron Should Address Repression in China Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Paris) \u2013\u00a0French<\/a> President Emmanuel Macron should privately and publicly stress the importance of human rights in Sino-French relations during his visit to\u00a0China<\/a> from December 3 to 5, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. Macron\u2019s visit is one of several top-level engagements between European and Chinese leaders amid the complex and shifting geopolitical relationships among Europe<\/a>, China, and the United States.<\/p>\n

President Macron should signal his commitment to taking concrete action in response to\u00a0deepening repression<\/a> by China. Key issues include labor rights abuses in China\u2019s supply chains;\u00a0commercial drones produced by China-based companies being used by Russia to attack civilians<\/a> in Ukraine; and China\u2019s use of transnational repression to target critics abroad, including in France.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina\u2019s disregard for human rights has important implications for France, from weapons used in unlawful Russian attacks in Ukraine to abusive supply chains that hinders fair competition for European industries,\u201d said\u00a0B\u00e9n\u00e9dicte Jeannerod<\/a>, France director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cMacron should break the silos between human rights and other issues and show leadership by including rights concerns in high-level policy discussions with China.\u201d<\/p>\n

Efforts by France and other EU countries to address serious human rights violations in China have been hindered by a willingness to distinguish them from other economic and political aspects of the relationship, Human Rights Watch said. Macron should acknowledge their interconnection and demonstrate leadership by including human rights in its broader policy discussions with China.<\/p>\n

The opening of the Chinese company Shein\u2019s first physical store in Paris has raised various concerns, including a company business model that allegedly relies on\u00a0labor abuses<\/a> and deceptive\u00a0commercial practices<\/a> that include\u00a0sourcing from state-imposed forced labor<\/a> in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

Media<\/a> and\u00a0nongovernmental organizations<\/a> have reported that Shein workers in China toil for excessive hours for very little pay. Shein has\u00a0said<\/a> it is committed to supporting suppliers to create working conditions that meet international standards for health and safety, labor, and social welfare.<\/p>\n

Human rights groups have also documented the use of Chinese state-imposed forced labor involving Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities in China\u2019s\u00a0cotton<\/a>,\u00a0automotive<\/a>,\u00a0solar<\/a>, and\u00a0critical mineral<\/a> supply chains. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and other organizations have for several years reported on\u00a0crimes against humanity<\/a> by Chinese authorities in Xinjiang. a predominantly Muslim Uyghur region.<\/p>\n

The European Union\u2019s\u00a0Forced Labor Regulation<\/a>, once fully implemented in December 2027, will provide an important tool to block products made with forced labor from the EU market, including those from China. The risk of human rights abuses in supply chains also underscores the need to preserve the EU\u2019s\u00a0corporate sustainability legislation<\/a>, which the EU, with the support of the French government, is currently seeking to water down.<\/p>\n

Macron has pushed for the EU to use its \u201ctrade bazooka\u201d law, the Anti-Coercion Instrument, to address China\u2019s coercive trade practices. But he should reiterate that China\u2019s full compliance with international conventions recently ratified by China\u2014International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 29 on\u00a0forced labor<\/a> and ILO Convention No. 105 on\u00a0state-imposed forced labor<\/a>\u2014are critical for strengthening ties between the two countries.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch in June documented Russia\u2019s use of\u00a0commercial drones produced by China-based companies to attack civilians<\/a> in Kherson, Ukraine. Macron should press the Chinese government to ensure that these drone companies prevent sales to sanctioned entities and cooperate with investigations into unlawful attacks on civilians in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

China has also increasingly carried out cross-border abuses\u2014known as\u00a0transnational repression<\/a>\u2014to oppress critics of the government abroad and\u00a0impose ideological control<\/a>, including in\u00a0France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a recent case, Chinese authorities in July arrested\u00a0Tara Zhang Yadi<\/a>, a Chinese student who had been studying in France, upon her return to China. She faces up to 5 years in prison, or up to 15 if found to be a ringleader, under charges of \u201cinciting others to split the country and undermine national unity,\u201d because she advocated for Tibetan rights while in France. This arrest comes amid broader Chinese government efforts to demand that foreign institutions, including\u00a0museums in France<\/a>, refer to Tibet as Xizang, a Mandarin name for the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cMillions of people in China, France, and the EU continue to bear the weight of Beijing\u2019s repression and abuses,\u201d Jeannerod said. \u201cMacron should stop trying to justify France\u2019s silence on rights and make clear that the Chinese government\u2019s repression affects many core French and EU interests, and that China needs to reverse course to maintain strong relations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Paris) \u2013\u00a0French President Emmanuel Macron should privately and publicly stress the importance of human rights in Sino-French relations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-609116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115654546270166037","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}