China's envoy in Paris is first to publicly comment on #A4Revolution

"The Chinese public initiated protests to express dissatisfaction [with] how local gov failed to fully implement central gov policies. But the protests were soon being taken advantage of by foreign forces”
Lu Shaye contradicts Xi Jinping, who told EU leaders protests were down to "frustrated" kids

"The real protests only happened on the first day. Foreign forces came into play already on the second day,” said Lu.

@kinlinglo with the story

scmp.com/news/china/dip…
Utterly predictable fare from Lu to blame foreign forces, but interesting that he chose to do so publicly, and so proffer a different view to Xi (although he has yet to say anything publicly)

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More from @fbermingham

Dec 15
The European Parliament has adopted, by a show of hands, a resolution criticising the Chinese government's crackdown on recent protests in major cities
"MEPs express support for protesters fighting for fundamental rights who are being persecuted by the Chinese government, notably in the context of zero COVID-19 policy. They are concerned about violations of freedoms of expression, association, assembly, press and media in China"
The resolution, tabled by the Greens, "highlights the arrest of a foreign journalist covering the protests and demand unhindered access to China for independent journalists, international observers and investigative bodies."

This in ref to @EP_Lawrence
Read 10 tweets
Dec 14
Interesting from 🇵🇭 Prez @bongbongmarcos in Brussels this eve. I asked about Asean being viewed as a "swing state" in superpower rivalry:

"About the competition between US & China. It's not what we want, believe me, we'd rather not have these tensions in our part of the world"
.@bongbongmarcos cont: "That is the last thing that we would like... we absolutely refuse to go back to the situation of the Cold War where we have to pick sides in terms of which superpower we're aligned with"
Marcos adds: “I would not be overstepping by saying that we agree in the sense that we are committed to the idea that the future of the Asia Pacific region should be decided by Asian Pacific countries and not any other power outside of our area.”
Read 6 tweets
Dec 14
Here in Brussels for the first EU-Asean summit.

Perhaps disappointingly for those who have travelled from South East Asia, French president Emmanuel Macron has bailed on the event, he's gone to the World Cup semi final in Qatar instead
Leaders from Denmark, Latvia, Slovenia and Slovakia also missing. While on the Asean side, the leader of Myanmar's military junta is not invited and new Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim is absent as he's facing a confidence vote back home.
Dutch PM Rutte understands why not all Asean members joined condemnation of Russia in joint statement

"I understand within the group there's a difference of opinion. For example, Philippines & Indonesia have more forward leaning positions on the UN résolutions than eg Thailand"
Read 11 tweets
Dec 13
NEW: References to Taiwan dropped from communiqué for tomorrow's first ever EU Asean summit, after negotiators couldn't agree on how to describe one China policies

scmp.com/news/china/dip…
The statement now discusses the South China Sea without mentioning Taiwan, text below.

Per EU sources the disagreement was about whether there is just one universal China policy, in line with China's, or different policies for different jurisdictions Image
The EU has a different view and a different one China policy than Beijing's one China principle, said an EU official, so in the end they "preferred not to have any language at all".
Read 4 tweets
Dec 7
Breaking: EU to push to panel stage of WTO cases vs China.

1. Over economic coercion of Lithuania following opening of Taiwan rep office in Vilnius
2. For penalising EU firms seeking to protect their patents from Chinese theft in foreign courts

ec.europa.eu/commission/pre…
The first dispute is over an unofficial Chinese embargo of Lithuanian goods, after the opening of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius last Nov

This was the first such office in Europe to bear the name “Taiwan”, they're usually called "Taipei"

scmp.com/news/china/dip…
China formally downgraded its diplomatic relations with Lithuania, with all Lithuanian diplomats leaving the country to operate the embassy remotely

scmp.com/news/china/dip…
Read 20 tweets
Dec 1
Charles Michel press conference in Beijing starting now.

Says he came to Beijing to "discuss where we can work better together, but also to discuss and manage our differences. I believe in the power of dialogue
Says he "urged Xi, as we did at EU-China Summit in April, to use his influence on Russia to respect the UN Charter".

Michel says "President Xi and I agreed that nuclear threats are not acceptable, and highly dangerous"
Says he also raised human rights and "rights of minorities".

"The right of freedom of assembly is a fundamental right, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
Read 13 tweets

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