O.
whereas in June 2015 the Hong Kong Legislative Council voted against a controversial
proposal that would have let Hong Kong voters elect their Chief Executive, but only
from a pool of candidates vetted by a pro-Beijing committee; whereas precisely this
proposal sparked the 79-day pro-democracy Umbrella Movement of massive protests,
from late September till mid-December 2014;
P.
whereas the new Chinese leadership considers the rise of the PRC as an irreversible fact
resulting in a shift from ‘responsive diplomacy’ to ‘proactive diplomacy’;
Q.
whereas the new White Paper on China’s military strategy postulates that the traditional
mentality that land outweighs sea must be abandoned and that greater importance
should be attached to managing the seas and protecting maritime rights and interests;
whereas China is refusing to recognise the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in
connection with the South and East China Sea disputes;
R.
whereas, in a 2002 Declaration of Conduct, China and the ASEAN countries promised
to create the conditions for ‘a peaceful and durable solution’ in the South China Sea;
whereas, despite this, tension is continuing to grow with neighbouring countries such as
Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei;
S.
whereas China is North Korea’s main political supporter and largest investor, aid donor,
food and energy supplier and trade partner; whereas Chinese experts recently revealed
that North Korea may already have 20 nuclear warheads;
T.
whereas in the wake of the Ukraine crisis Russia and China have stepped up their
mutual relations in an unprecedented fashion;
U.
whereas on 8 May 2015 Russia and China signed a bilateral agreement on ‘information
security’, which defines cyberthreats as the transmission of information that could
endanger the ‘societal-political and social-economic systems, and spiritual, moral and
cultural environment of states’;
V.
whereas since 2005 China has extended credit to Latin American countries to a total
value of approximately USD 100 billion; whereas at present China is Brazil’s principal
trading partner and the second largest for – by way of example – Argentina, Venezuela
and Cuba;
W.
whereas the Chinese Government acknowledges the importance and the universality of
human rights, but is lacking in tangible results as regards improving its human rights
record;
X.
whereas China has officially and nominally accepted the universality of human rights
and in the past three decades has opted into the international human rights framework
by signing a wide range of human rights treaties, and has thus become part of the
international legal and institutional human rights framework;
Y.
whereas at the beginning of 2015 President Xi publicly announced his intention of
extending the rule of law throughout the country, out of a conviction that effective
justice is essential for a modern economy and society in China;
Z.
whereas the CPC recognises five religions, which are ultimately controlled by the
party’s own United Front Work Department; whereas this list is exclusive and other
religions and cults are therefore being discriminated against;