EU Wants Hong Kong’s Rights to Be Respected: German Foreign Minister

The European Union remains concerned about the Hong Kong national security law and wants Hongkongers’ rights promised in the Basic Law to be respected, Germany’s foreign minister told his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday.

The Basic Law refers to Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, drafted upon the city’s transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China. The document guarantees Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas made the remarks during talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was visiting Berlin amid local protests over the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses not only in Hong Kong, but also in Xinjiang and other parts of the country.

Beijing enacted a national security law, which went into effect on June 30, criminalizing any acts Beijing determines to be subversion, secession, and collusion with foreign forces, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (R) and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) leave after a joint press conference in Berlin on Sept. 1, 2020. Michael Sohn - Pool / Getty Images

“The new security law in Hong Kong was an important topic when we last spoke, and you know from your visit to the other European capitals that our concerns about the effects of the security law have not yet been allayed,” Maas told Wang, who was wrapping up his European tour which also included Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and France.

“We want the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ to be fully applied and the rights guaranteed in the Basic Law to be respected,” he said at a joint press conference. “We in the EU are agreed that this will remain our benchmark for developments in Hong Kong.”

Riot police detain a man as they clear protesters taking part in a rally against a new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. Dale De La Rey/AFP via Getty Images

The Hong Kong government recently postponed the 2020 Hong Kong Legislative Council election for a year, citing a local surge in CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus cases as the reason. But it is widely believed to be a desperate move to prevent the pro-democracy camp from winning a majority of seats in the legislature.

The German foreign minister called on Beijing to reverse the restrictions imposed under the national security law and allow the postponed elections to take place “quickly and unhindered.”

People march on Queen’s Road in Central, Hong Kong, on June 9, 2020. Song Bilong/The Epoch Times

Maas also spoke to Wang about Beijing’s oppression of Uyghur Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region in northwestern China, where over a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims are believed to be incarcerated in detention camps.

“We would very much like to see China grant an independent United Nations observer mission access to the camps,” said Maas.

Wang Yi rejected all criticisms of Beijing’s policies, saying these were all China’s “internal affairs.”

Falun Gong practitioners protest in front of the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was meeting his German counterpart Heiko Maas, on Sept. 1, 2020. (The Epoch Times).

‘German Industry Must Not Be Indifferent’

Before the meeting, German politicians from both the ruling coalition and the opposition had demanded that the foreign minister criticize the Chinese regime’s human rights violations in terms “other than the consistently reserved language” toward China.

Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock demanded that further negotiations on an EU-China investment agreement be linked to human rights guarantees.

Margarete Bause (Greens), chairwoman of the German Parliament’s Human Rights Committee, urged the German industry “not to be indifferent” to what is happening in Hong Kong.

Margarete Bause, chairwoman of the Human Rights Committee of the German Parliament, speaks at a rally outside the Federal Foreign Ministry on Sept. 1, 2020. The Epoch Times

“It is in the very best interests of German business to show solidarity with the democracy movement, because free trade presupposes a free society,” she said at a rally outside the Foreign Ministry. “I expect German business to take a clear stand on the side of human and civil rights.”

“We have to act before it’s too late,” said Nathan Law, a former Hong Kong legislator and current activist-in-exile, at the rally.

Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law attends a rally in front of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin on Sept. 1, 2020. The Epoch Times

Law, 27, who fled to London after the security law was enacted, called on the German government to “consider sanctions against officials of the governments in Beijing and Hong Kong.”

The rally was attended by hundreds, including representatives of Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Falun Gong practitioners.

Isabel van Brugen, Yinyin Liao, and the German edition of The Epoch Times contributed to this report.