Five years ago, Middle East Eye published a column noting that it would be unwise, to say the least, for the United States to engage Iran, Russia and China at the same time. Unfortunately, the US has forged ahead with exactly this policy – with disastrous results.
Incredibly, the European Union, far less powerful than the US by any metric, seems determined to follow the same mistaken path, and has now turned its attention to China.
In mid-June, EU leaders agreed to address “global macroeconomic imbalances”, referring to China’s increasing trade surplus with Europe. The EU has also moved to curb China’s role in the tech sector, while wading into Beijing’s internal politics.
Earlier this year, China’s legislature adopted the landmark Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, which took effect at the start of July. The law encourages members of China’s 56 ethnic groups to adopt a common national identity.
The European Parliament responded with a resolution condemning the law and warning China that its implementation would “lead to severe consequences for EU-China relations”.
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From Beijing’s viewpoint, this act is not only gross interference in China’s internal affairs, but also a textbook case of western hypocrisy, double standards and willful ignorance.
The EU’s central charge – that the law envisages a forced assimilation of minority groups – seems weak, to say the least. The law explicitly stipulates that upholding national unity and ethnic solidarity is the responsibility of all Chinese citizens, while prohibiting discrimination against any ethnic group.
It also mandates state support for infrastructure, public services and economic development in ethnic minority regions – provisions that directly benefit the more than 125 million citizens belonging to China’s ethnic minority groups.
Disingenuous objection
Article 15 of the law explicitly notes that while the state promotes standard spoken and written Mandarin Chinese, it “respects and guarantees the learning and use of minority languages”. This dual commitment mirrors the language policies of countless sovereign nations.
France, for example, enshrines French as the republic’s official language, while refusing to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. And last year, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring English to be the country’s sole official language.
Yet the EU did not condemn Paris or Washington for “assimilationist” policies. Its outrage was reserved exclusively for Beijing.
China asserts that the law’s true purpose is to codify the country’s successes in countering separatism, terrorism and radicalisation, while focusing on ethnic unity and shared progress. The remarkable economic and social development of ethnic minority communities – where GDP growth in the five autonomous regions kept pace with the national average from 2020 to 2024 – appears to be living proof that China’s approach works.
The future of healthy international relations depends not on the usual lectures by the usual suspects, but on genuine dialogue among equals
Perhaps the European Parliament’s most disingenuous objection concerns the law’s provision that individuals and groups outside China can be held legally accountable for undermining “ethnic unity and progress” or inciting separatism. The Europeans expressed concern about the law’s “extraterritorial reach”, and suggested that the legislation violates international law.
This is breathtaking hypocrisy from a political bloc that has long embraced extraterritorial legal reach when it suits its interests. The US – the EU’s closest ally – routinely wields the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act to assert jurisdiction far beyond its borders.
The EU itself maintains a blocking statute to counteract third-country legislation with extraterritorial effect. Such instruments are not condemned as “transnational repression”; they are celebrated as legitimate tools of sovereignty and influence.
The double standard could not be more glaring. The European objection is not rooted in international law, but in the simple fact that China, as opposed to the West, now asserts the right to defend itself against those who would tear it apart.
The law explicitly targets acts of violent terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism – activities that any sovereign state, in principle, has both the right and the duty to combat.
Geopolitical smokescreen
The European Parliament’s resolution wraps itself in the language of human rights, accusing China of restricting cultural, religious and linguistic freedoms. But the “human rights” critique seems more like a smokescreen for geopolitical maneuvering.
The timing of the resolution – passed in April, months before the law even took effect – suggests that it was not a response to any actual harms, but rather an attempt to preemptively delegitimise a law it had barely studied.
Perhaps the most damning indictment of the European resolution is the state of minority rights within Europe itself. Racism, xenophobia and hatred towards minority groups – including Chinese communities – are growing problems across Europe. The EU lectures Beijing on ethnic unity while struggling to manage its own migration crises, rising far-right nationalism, and persistent discrimination against the Roma people and other minorities.
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The EU would be better served by introspection than by lecturing a country that has successfully lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, and maintained social harmony across one of the most ethnically diverse nations on Earth. Its condemnation weaponises human rights rhetoric while turning a blind eye to failings closer to home, such as the restrictive measures taken against the use of the Russian language in Ukraine.
Indeed, the EU’s objections reveal more about Europe’s anxieties than about China’s realities.
Europe is experiencing a tough economic moment, its industrial capacity affected by energy prices that have soared amid the US-Israeli war on Iran (which the EU refuses to condemn). Far-right political movements are on the rise, while mainstream elites seem to be in disarray.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been forced to resign after just two years in power; Marine Le Pen has been cleared to run in France’s next presidential elections; and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is facing mass layoffs in the automotive sector, alongside the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the polls.
It would thus be better for Brussels to abandon its attitude of unilateral condescension, and to opt instead for a policy – at least with China – that is built on dialogue and mutual respect. The old continent is in no position to enter a four-fronted competition with the US, Russia, Iran and China.
The future of healthy international relations depends not on the usual lectures by the usual suspects, but on genuine dialogue among equals. The sooner EU institutions and national leaders understand this, the better.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
