H. whereas China introduced limits on terms of office in the 1980s in response to the excesses of the Cultural Revolution; whereas on 11 March 2018 the NPC voted almost unanimously in favour of abrogating the limit of two consecutive terms for the posts of President and Vice-President of the People’s Republic of China; I. whereas the Chinese top leadership, while claiming non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, regularly calls into question Western countries’ political system in its official communications; J. whereas on 11 March 2018, the NPC endorsed the establishment of a National Supervisory Commission, a new party-controlled body designed to institutionalise and expand control over all civil servants in China, listing it as a state body within China’s Constitution; K. whereas in 2014, the State Council of China announced detailed plans to create a Social Credit System with the aim of rewarding behaviour that the Party considers financially, economically and socio-politically responsible, while sanctioning non-compliance with its policies; whereas the project of social credit scoring will likely also have an impact on foreigners living and working in China, including EU citizens, and entail consequences for EU and other foreign companies operating in the country; L. whereas it is clear that in some regions of China, the livelihoods of the rural population will deteriorate because of variations in temperature and precipitation and through other climate extremes; whereas relocation planning has become an effective adaptation policy option to reduce climate-induced vulnerability and poverty1; M. whereas the human rights situation in China has continued to deteriorate with the government stepping up its hostility toward peaceful dissent, the freedom of expression and religion, and the rule of law; whereas civil society activists and human rights defenders are being detained, prosecuted and sentenced on the basis of vague charges such as ‘subverting state power’ and ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’, and are often detained incommunicado at undisclosed locations, without access to medical care or legal representation; whereas detained human rights defenders and activists are sometimes held in ‘residential surveillance in a designated location’, a method used to cut off detainees from contact, during which torture and ill-treatment are frequently reported; whereas China continues to deny free speech and the freedom to inform, and a high number of journalists, bloggers and independent voices have been imprisoned; whereas in its strategic framework on human rights and democracy, the EU has pledged that human rights, democracy, and rule of law will be promoted ‘in all areas of the EU’s external actions without exception’ and that the EU will ‘place human rights at the centre of its relations with all third countries including strategic partners’; whereas the EU-China summits have to be used to bring about concrete results in the field of human rights, namely the release of jailed human rights defenders, lawyers and activists; N. whereas EU diplomats have at times been prevented by the Chinese authorities from observing trials or visiting human rights defenders, work that is in line with the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders; 1 Y. Zhen, J. Pan, X. Zhang, ‘Relocation as a policy response to climate change vulnerability in Northern China’, ISSC and UNESCO 2013, World Social Science Report 2013, Changing Global Environments, pp. 234-241.