New leadership takes over, the European Parliament calls for genuine political reform and pragmatic cooperation from China

On the day when 59-year-old Xi Jinping took over from Hu Jintao as China’s head of state, the Members of European Parliament adopted a resolution stressing that China must match its economic development with real political reforms.

“China must match its economic development with real political reforms, MEPs stress in a resolution adopted on Thursday. The EU can help China with this through pragmatic cooperation, they say. They also voice concerns about the tensions between China and Japan and Taiwan and about North Korea and raise human rights issues,” the European Parliament said in a statement on its website. (View full statement)

“Parliament points to the recent, vast economic development in China that has lifted a large part of the population out of poverty but regrets that this is not yet matched by progress with political liberties, human rights and social integration,” the EU said.

“I have sought to make a contribution to a successful partnership between the EU and China. One of the key elements is the requirement for mutual responsibility,” said Bastiaan Belder (EFD, NL), author of the non-binding resolution. He stressed that his aim was also to raise the concerns of the Chinese people.

MEPs say that pragmatic cooperation between the EU and China can be fostered through Europe’s 2020 Strategy and China’s 12th Five-Year Plan and ask the new Chinese leadership to ensure that China’s economic success is not undermined by  a “red aristocracy’ of enormously rich party leaders”.

Raising the issue of tragic self-immolations by Tibetans, the MEPs said that “lasting stability in the autonomous provinces of Tibet cannot be achieved by their forced assimilation.”