The EU, followed by the UK, imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials and one organization it deemed responsible for devising and implementing discriminatory policies, arbitrary detention and degrading treatment on ethnic Uyghur muslims in Xinjiang. The EU prohibited the four from traveling to the EU and blocked their financial transactions. The U.S. had earlier already imposed sanctions on even more Chinese officials. It was the first time since the Tiananmen incident in 1989 that the EU had imposed sanctions on China. China’s reaction was swift, imposing its own sanctions on 10 EU individuals –  including Reinhard Bütikofer, Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with China, and Michael Gahler, Chair of the European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group, Ambassadors, and Members of the European Parliament. Four organizations were also sanctioned, including the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin. The non-profit Alliance of Democracies Foundation, founded by former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was  on the list. Also included is Adrian Zenz, a German scholar whose research was cited by the U.S. State Department last year to support alleged abuses in Xinjiang. Enterprises connected to those individuals will be barred from doing business in China. China also imposed sanctions on nine UK individuals and four entities. 

Soon after Beijing’s countermeasures were announced, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) – the second-largest grouping of lawmakers in the European Parliament – said  they would not engage in any talks on the CAI until the measures are lifted.

China summoned foreign diplomats in protest after the United States, the European Union, Canada and Britain  separately imposed sanctions on senior Chinese officials. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying called the new sanctions “slander and an affront to the reputation and dignity of  the Chinese people.” The accusations against China are based on fake files, words from unidentified sources, and even distortion of official documents, Hua told reporters. “The so-called sanctions based on lies are not acceptable,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi added.  

The Global Times pointed out that the Chinese market is indispensable to the European automotive industry, a pillar  of the European economy, as 28.6% of new BMW cars were sold in the Chinese market in 2019, making China the largest market for the German automaker for the eighth year in a row. Volkswagen’s new car sales in the Chinese market also accounted for nearly 39% of its global sales in 2019.

China does not accept some European countries’ unjustifiable practice of summoning Chinese envoys, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, accusing the European Union of engaging in hegemony and hypocrisy. “The EU side is playing double standards as it only allows itself to arbitrarily smear and attack others, and even arbitrarily imposes sanctions based on fake information and lies, but does not allow China to talk back or hit back,” Hua said. She added that what the U.S. and its allies had done reminded people of the Eight-Nation Alliance Force that invaded China in 1900. “China is not what it was 120 years ago. They should know that the Chinese people are not to be messed with,” she said. 

China called on the EU to return to its China strategy of the past decade – focussed on promoting trade and investment – that has proven to be successful. 

This overview is based on reporting by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily, Global Times and The Guardian.