Ukraine: a year after sanctions, EU-China ties face new ‘defining moment’ on Russia

Beijing hit European diplomats, politicians and researchers with travel and business bans in response to sanctions over Xinjiang

Relations have worsened since then and a sterner test is to come amid suspicion over Beijing’s positioning in Moscow’s war in Ukraine

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added to tensions in the EU-China relationship. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 11:00pm, 21 Mar 2022Updated: 10:49am, 23 Mar 2022

A year ago on Tuesday, Clint Flores thought a colleague was joking when he told him via text message that he had been sanctioned by China.

Flores was Malta’s ambassador to the European Union’s Political and Security Committee, a powerful group of diplomats who help mould Europe’s foreign, defence and security policy.

“My press officer texted me and my immediate response was: ‘LOL, you cannot be serious.’ But he was, and when I had time to think about it, I guess it was not a big surprise, because the Chinese wanted to send a message and they had already gone after Mike Pompeo and other American figures,” said Flores, who has since left the diplomatic service.

The entire committee, along with members of the European and national parliaments, and multiple researchers and think tanks, were slapped with travel and business bans by Beijing.

They came after the EU placed human rights sanctions on four Chinese officials and one entity in relation to alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang – the bloc’s first sanctions on China since the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

The United States, Britain and Canada later joined the sanctioning blitz, in what marked a new phase of joined-up Western policymaking on China.

But arguably, the most lasting impact was on EU-China relations, which had been in a relatively stable place – at least compared with US-China ties.