Human rights violation: Swiss politicians call for a tougher course against China – News

The Federal Council is adjusting its strategy for China. Individual MPs are asking for clear words for Beijing in the future.

Sayragul Sauytbay was forcibly recruited from a Uyghur re-education camp. After his escape, he wrote down his experiences. CVP President Gerhard Pfister is well aware of his impressive experience. He has read your book and says: “It confirmed to me that we have to discuss these issues with China more seriously than before.”

“The key witness” of China’s crimes

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The Chinese authorities call them vocational training centers: but there are camps in China’s western Xinjiang region where hundreds of thousands of members of Muslim minorities are interned: Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz. From a Chinese perspective, they are radical separatists.

Sayragul Sauytbay, herself a Muslim, was forcibly recruited as a coach for that camp and had to instill Chinese and state propaganda among minorities. As an instructor, she witnessed brutal torture and abuse. After half a year in the field, he fled to Europe.

German journalist Alexandra Cavelius wrote the report “Die Kronzeugin” based on her stories. These days, Sauytbay is visiting Switzerland at the invitation of the Society for Threatened Peoples. Radio SRF’s “Echo der Zeit” spoke to him for me.

Therefore, Pfister is in favor of a course adjustment, and he is not alone in this. A new strategy for China is currently being developed in the external department. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said in an interview in late August that Switzerland must represent its interests and values ​​more strongly towards China.

Depending on how robust it is, it could have a price that Australia is currently paying. China has imposed tariffs on Australian products because of Canberra’s critical comments about the penal camps and the suppression of democracy in Hong Kong. CVP foreign politician Pfister says: “We have to hope that a clear stance towards China will be answered with retaliatory measures.”

That would be new. Until now, Switzerland has hardly been prepared to jeopardize economic interests in its relations with China. It has been pursuing a two-pronged strategy for years: it has an active trade policy with China (for example, it was the first European country to sign a free trade agreement) and it conducts an independent human rights dialogue with Beijing.

This dialogue has turned out to be a fig leaf, criticizes the foreign politician of the SP, Fabián Molina. “Switzerland must integrate human rights policy into its strategy for China and place it at the center. However, I’m afraid it will continue as before: ‘Business first, human rights second.’

Indeed, it is questionable whether a stricter approach to China could win a majority in parliament. The FDP Council of States Damian Müller, chairman of the Foreign Policy Commission, is very cautious.

It is important to analyze where China could become dangerous. “But we have to be careful not to break and block everything. We have to look at where there are opportunities and where are the dangers, we have to weigh them. “

Müller sees a danger in strategic foreign investments from the Middle Kingdom. “We don’t want Swiss companies or major infrastructure like a hydroelectric plant to be sold to the Chinese.” Müller hopes that the Federal Council will answer these questions in its new strategy for China.

“Excellent economic relations”

A rethinking has been carried out. Recently, the FDP opposed a corresponding CVP motion on the grounds that it was against the free market. SVP National Councilor Franz Grüter, who maintains trade relations with China, sees no reason for a tougher stance towards China.

It must be recognized that Switzerland’s economic relations with China are excellent. “It has been a decade of great trust and good cooperation. After the EU, China is one of Switzerland’s most important trading partners. “

Therefore, the positions are related. In the coming months, the Federal Council will decide where Switzerland wants to position itself vis-à-vis China in the zone of tension between business and human rights.