Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he opposes reconsidering trade relations with China over its policies toward Hong Kong and its Uighur minority.
Rutte, whose country is among the EU countries most closely intertwined with Chinese production chains, said the EU should address those topics, but should not isolate countries that do not live up to European standards.
His comments in an interview feed into Europe’s reassessment of individual and collective relations with China triggered most immediately by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Photo: AP
Cutting ties with China would not “help anyone in Hong Kong or the Uighurs,” Rutte said in Brussels after an EU summit.
“This is one of the reasons I believe the EU should be more of a geopolitical powerhouse, that we have to develop our own policies toward China, in close connection with the US,” he said.
The Netherlands was the biggest importer of goods from China last year, according to EU data. China is the country’s third-biggest trade partner after neighbors Germany and Belgium.
Dutch-based chip machine builder ASML Holding NV plays a sensitive role in trade relations due to China’s reliance on ASML technology to build up its chipmaking industry. The company has not been granted an export license to ship its most advanced machines to China.
A trade dispute with China would have high costs for the Netherlands, a government economic analysis agency, the Central Planning Bureau, said last week.
Recent EU-Chinese contacts have reflected tensions in the relationship. After a summit in April, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said the talks were “a dialogue of the deaf,” with China refusing to discuss the war in Ukraine, human rights or other issues between the two sides.
China has been accused of running a state-sponsored forced-labor program in Xinjiang under the guise of poverty alleviation efforts, sending as many as 1 million Uighurs to so-called re-education camps.
China has repeatedly denied mistreatment of Uighurs and says crackdowns in Hong Kong are to prevent insurrection.
Rutte said that he always addresses the issues with China, including the last time he spoke to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強).
Even so, he said: “You cannot close off relationships with countries which are not living up to our standards.”
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
RSS