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China-EU relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Human rights cast shadow over China Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s Netherlands visit

  • A group of Dutch politicians has signalled intention to invite the Chinese diplomat to talk about Hong Kong, Xinjiang
  • Parliamentary sources suggest the move has majority support although the invitation could be declined

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Rome on Tuesday, on the first stop of his European tour. Photo: Reuters
Stuart Lau
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to the Netherlands on Wednesday will be all about trade, but human rights threaten to steal some of the spotlight from his planned focus on the second leg of his European tour.
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Wang is likely to lobby the Dutch government to renew an export licence for the sale of critical chip making technology to China, amid US pressure against the move on the grounds of national security.

A US$150 million order placed with ASML – global leader in its field – has been on hold after lobbying by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the sharing by White House officials of a classified intelligence report with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Wang is also expected to focus on rebuilding a stable supply chain in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic while in the Netherlands, home to the world’s busiest port in Europe at Rotterdam.
But a group of Dutch lawmakers were on Tuesday planning to invoke a rarely used rule to “invite” Wang as a visiting foreign official to a meeting with the legislature’s foreign affairs committee to discuss human rights issues, including on Hong Kong, and Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang.

While Wang could decline the invitation, the politically embarrassing move by the lawmakers offers a glimpse into what may lie ahead at a more critical time in his tour – in Norway, France and Germany, where human rights are most likely to be raised in discussions.

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Theo van Toor, registrar of the Tweede Kamer – the Dutch House of Representatives – and clerk of the committee, gave notice of the proposed invitation, put forward by Christian Democratic Appeal politician Martijn van Helvert, in a letter to members.

Sources say the motion was most likely to be endorsed by a majority of the committee – a sign of the growing frustration with Chinese diplomacy, even in a normally non-confrontational parliament like the one in The Hague.

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