China to lift sanctions on MEPs in bid to revive trade deal with EU

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China is preparing to lift sanctions on European lawmakers as it tries to revive an investment deal with the EU after losing most of its access to the US market in Donald Trump’s trade war.

A spokesperson for Roberta Metsola, president of the European parliament, confirmed the move, first reported by German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Beijing took the measures against several MEPs in 2021 after the EU placed sanctions on some Chinese entities because of alleged human rights violations against the Uyghur Muslim minority in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

The European parliament then refused to ratify an EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment that would have deepened trade ties between the two. 

Beijing has now stepped up efforts to woo the EU as US tariffs of 145 per cent seal off its biggest market, except for exempted items such as smartphones.

“Discussions with the Chinese authorities are continuing and in their final stages,” the spokesperson said on Wednesday.

“The president will first inform group leaders once the Chinese authorities officially confirm that sanctions have been lifted. It has always been the European parliament’s intention to have the sanctions lifted and resume relations with China.”

The five blacklisted MEPs were banned from travel to China. Reinhard Bütikofer, a German Green and former leader of the parliament’s China delegation, has left parliament but Michael Gahler and Miriam Lexmann, centre-right politicians from Germany and Slovakia, French Socialist Raphaël Glucksmann and Ilhan Kyuchyuk, a Bulgaria liberal, remain MEPs.

Noah Barkin, senior adviser at Rhodium Group, a consultancy, said China hoped that the removal of sanctions would improve EU trade ties. 

“[EU] officials tell me that China hopes the removal of sanctions will lead to a revival of the CAI, sending a powerful signal about EU-China co-operation at a time when Beijing and Brussels are under intense pressure from a global trade war launched by President Donald Trump,” he wrote in a blog post.

He added that although the move “would fuel expectations of an EU-China détente” before a planned Beijing summit in July, he still views “the chances of a meaningful rapprochement between the EU and China as slim”.

Parliamentary officials said the talks preceded the arrival of Trump in office and were aimed at allowing the lawmakers to do their work. Since the sanctions were imposed there has been no visits by MEPs to China and contact with Chinese diplomats has been minimal. 

The EU sanctions on Chinese entities remain in place.

As well as the MEPs, China sanctioned two EU-linked committees, three national parliamentarians, the Mercator Institute for China Studies think-tank, the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, and two academics.

Two EU officials said the CAI would not be revived as the situation had changed so much. It would exempt China from some trade enforcement action, one said. 

“It is a bit outdated and is of even less value now than it was then,” said a senior EU diplomat. “Let’s see if there is a willingness on the Chinese side to offer something more attractive.”

The European Commission opened a record number of trade defence investigations against Beijing last year and has repeatedly urged it to open up its markets in areas such as medical devices. 

The Chinese mission in Brussels has yet to respond to a request for comment.