35th round thereof, held in Brussels on 22 and 23 June 2017, – having regard to the awarding of its Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Wei Jingsheng and Hu Jia in 1996 and 2008 respectively, – having regard to the statement by the Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations of the European External Action Service (EEAS) of 27 December 2017 on the verdicts of Wu Gan and Xie Yang in China, – having regard to the Local Statement by the Delegation of the European Union on International Human Rights Day, 8 December 2017, – having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, – having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 December 1966, – having regard to Rules 135(5) and 123(4) of its Rules of Procedure, A. whereas the promotion of and respect for universal human rights, democracy and the rule of law should remain at the centre of the long-standing relationship between the EU and China, in accordance with the EU’s commitment to uphold these very same values in its external action and China’s expressed interest in adhering to them in its own development and international cooperation; B. whereas since President Xi Jinping assumed power, the human rights situation in China has deteriorated further, with the government stepping up its hostility toward peaceful dissent, the freedoms of expression and religion, and the rule of law; whereas the Chinese authorities have detained and prosecuted hundreds of human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists; C. whereas on 26 December 2017, a court in Tianjin sentenced activist Wu Gan to eight years in prison on charges of subverting state power; whereas Wu Gan routinely campaigned on sensitive issues relating to the government’s abuse of power, both online and offline; whereas according to his lawyer, Wu Gan rejected a deal with the authorities which would have given him a suspended sentence if he were to have admitted his guilt; D. whereas on the very same day in Hunan, human rights lawyer Xie Yang was also convicted but exempted from criminal penalties after he earlier pleaded guilty to subversion charges; whereas Wu Gan was arrested months before an unprecedented crackdown on human rights lawyers and defenders in 2015 that saw hundreds of people, including Xie Yang, questioned or detained nationwide over a few weeks; whereas there are allegations that Xie Yang has been tortured, beaten and threatened by interrogators; E. whereas on 28 November 2017, Yueyang Intermediate Court sentenced democracy activist Lee Ming-che to five years in prison after finding him guilty on charges of ‘subverting State power’, and stripped him of all political rights in China for two years; whereas it is likely that Lee Ming-che’s public confession was made under pressure from the Chinese authorities; whereas Lee Ming-che had gone missing on 19 March 2017, after he crossed from Macau into Zhuhai in China’s Guangdong province;