36 Amendments of Helmut SCHOLZ related to 2017/2274(INI)
Amendment 11 #
2a. Points out that EU - China trade remains still far from its full potential; identifies great potential in the field of agri-food trade; calls on the Commission to intensify cooperation and dialogue with China on the future of both regions’ agricultural policies, agri-food trade and in particular organic farming; welcomes in this regard the ongoing EU-China young farmer exchange programme, and supports an increase in the number of participants in the years to come;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that EU outward foreign direct investment in China has steadily decreased since 2012, while China’s investment in the EU has grown exponentially over the past yearin particular in the traditional manufacturing sector, with a parallel increase in investment in high- tech services, in utilities, in agricultural services and construction services; notes furthermore that China’s investment in the EU has grown exponentially over the past years, while remaining below its potential, and with a decline in 2017 as a consequence of new capital export controls;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas, largely unnoticed in Europe, China has been rapidly and systematically increasing its influence through strategic infrastructure investments and transport links and influencing Eurin Europe, which is seen as the end point of the new silk road; whereas President Xi Jinping has agreed to opean political and economic decision-makers, media, academics and the wider public, by building up ‘networks’ of supportive European individuals across societies; up the Chinese market also to investments from the EU, which are decreasing at present but at the same time being redirected, and to improve the investment environment in general, by regulating the Chinese market more effectively, by making it more transparent and above all by protecting the intellectual property rights of domestic and foreign firms more effectively;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Points out that a high level of mutual investment is an important indicator for successful economic cooperation, and notes that merger and acquisition FDI from the U.S., Switzerland and the United Kingdom in other EU Member States exceeds investment coming from Chinese companies into the Union;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Underlines the importance of the quality of an investment, in particular with regard to a positive effect on employment, respect for labour rights and trade unions, the safeguarding of environmentally sound production, and the contribution to mitigation of climate change;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Deplores the uneven distribution of mutual investment flows with a few EU Member States and a limited list of destinations within China receiving the vast majority of investments; calls on the Commission to increase emphasis on the support of disadvantaged Member States and regions to attract quality investment;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3d. Takes note that in 2017, a total of 24.72 million passenger vehicles were sold in China, of which German, Japanese, US, South Korean and French brands accounted for 19.6 percent, 17.0 percent, 12.3 percent, 4.6 percent and 1.8 percent of the total sales volume, respectively; calls on the Commission to explore and support the cooperation options for other European brands with Chinese partners in order to broaden the benefits from market shares, in particular with regard to next-generation emission-free drive systems, including for the public transport sector in order to cope with the growing demographic challenges of urban centres;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on China to act onWelcomes President Xi Jinping’s commitments to further open up the Chinese market to foreign investors, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and and to improve the investment environment, to complete the revision of the negative list on foreign investment and to implement the management system based on pre- establishment national treatment, to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and to re-institute the State Intellectual Property Office, and to level the playing field by making China’s market more transparent and better regulated, and calls for a swift implementation;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the most ambitious foreign policy initiative the country has ever adoptedan ambitious political project in which domestic economic issues linked to China's further development are intimately bound up with China's ideas for the international economic system, involving proposals for inclusive global development cooperation to address common challenges and the internal problems of the country's partners; whereas at the 16+1 summit held in late December 2017, as part of this strategy China pledged to invest USD 3 billion in infrastructure in the 16 CEE countries as part of the BRI; whereas the Chinese infrastructure projects will create large debts for the European governments to; whereas the plan is not to develop the BRI project as a finished global construction plan or as an alternative to existing international arrangements, but rather as an open cooperation initiative in the context of which interested partner countries will be invited to contribute to efforts to improve cooperation on and the connectivity of their respective development objectives and exploit existing potential; whereas although the new BRI will offer partner States the chance to improve their standing in the global economy, it does bring with it the risk of contracting large debts with Chinese sState- owned banks and few jobs in Europe, and are often awarded without transparent tenderfor projects which have thus far created few jobs, are awarded without transparent public procurement procedures, are carried out in breach of international environmental and labour standards in particular and are in some respects at odds with the economic principles of the EU and the applicant countries, for example as regards the ongoing use of obsolete, heavily polluting technologies;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls on the Commission to promote the Union's new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a gold standard in its trade relations with China; points out the need for a systematic dialogue with China and other partners in the WTO on regulatory requirements related to digitization of our economies and its impacts on trade, on production chains, on cross-border digital services, on 3D-printing, on consumption patterns, on payments, on taxes, on protection of personal data, on property-rights issues, on the provision and protection of audio- visual services, on media, on people-to- people contacts;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Takes note of the differences in economic policy applied in the European Union and China; is impressed by China's achievement to lift more than 700 million of its citizens out if abject poverty over the past four decades through its concept of inclusive growth; is aware of the dimension of change and reform performed by China, its population and its administration and the ambitious goals still lying ahead; calls on the Commission to support through cooperation the reforms and the achievement of important similar policy goals, in particular in relation to the UN SDG Agenda 2030 and the Paris Convention;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls for coordinated cooperation with China on the Belt and Road Initiative, the world's largest investment programme, bringing together state- owned, public and private investors, on the basis of common open and transparent rules, in particular regarding public procurement; deplores the absence of professional sustainable impact assessment in many of the projects related to Belt and Road and calls on the European Investment Bank to lend its extraordinary experience in this field to project assessment and planning in this increasingly common China - EU endeavour;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls on the European Commission to support China's accession to the Government Procurement Agreement;
Amendment 55 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Supports the ongoing negotiations on a comprehensive EU-China Investment Agreement; calls for further reciprocity in market access; welcomes the inclusion of a trade and sustainability chapter into this agreement and reiterates its demand to include binding commitments to the core ILO conventions, to major environmental agreements, and to the Paris Convention into all TSD chapters signed by the Union; recommends to include the TSD chapter provisions into the scope of the dispute settlement mechanism of the agreement; calls on the parties to agree on a list defining investor obligations and to provide for legal remedies, including counter-claims, for individuals and local authorities against breaches of these obligations; calls on the parties to address issues of tax-avoidance through FDI;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Welcomes China's strategic decisions to reduce significantly pollution emission by factories and traffic, and stresses the trade potential of technological cooperation on clean technologies; calls on China and the EU to overcome their differences regarding the WTO environmental goods agreement; deplores the export of obsolete heavily polluting coal power plants from China to other countries in the world, and in particular EU Neighbourhood countries such as Serbia and Bosnia & Hercegovina;
Amendment 68 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Calls on the EU and its Member States and on China to intensify cooperation to build up circular economies, as this urgent need has become even more visible following China's legitimate decision to restrict the trade with plastic waste from Europe; calls on both partners to intensify economic and technological cooperation in the goal to prevent global production chains, trade and transport, and tourism services leading to an intolerable degree of plastic pollution in our oceans;
Amendment 71 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on China and the EU to strive to play a responsible role on the global stage, including giving its active support to the multilateral rules-based trading system and the WTO; full awareness of the responsibilities emerging from their economic presence and performance in third countries and on global markets; calls on China and the EU to maintain their active support to the multilateral rules-based trading system and the WTO and to cooperate closely in the defence of the principle of equality before the law;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the new government regulations on religious affairs that took effect on 1 February 2018 are more restrictive towards religious groups and activities; whereas religious freedom has reached a new low since the start of the economic reforms and the opening up of China in the late 1970sflect the desire, while maintaining the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion, to monitor the activities of officially recognised and not yet recognised but tolerated religious groups more closely and more comprehensively and force them to fall more closely into line with party policies; whereas, on the basis of the overhaul of the political system in China approved by the National People's Congress, the government authority which until now has been responsible for religious affairs will in future report directly to the Central Committee of the party, a move which emphasises the party's desire to oversee all areas of society if at all possible;
Amendment 74 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Welcomes the legislative progress on so-called conflict minerals in both the European Union and in China, aimed at preventing that the trade in tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold finances armed conflict or that raw materials are mined using forced labour, emphasizes on the need to prevent that conflict minerals are processed into our mobile phones, cars and jewellery, calls on both the EU Commission and the Chinese government to set up a structured cooperation to support the implementation of the new legislation and to effectively prevent global, Chinese and EU smelters and refiners from using conflict minerals, to protect mine workers, including children, from being abused and to require EU and Chinese companies to ensure they import these minerals and metals from responsible sources only;
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Calls on the EU Commission and on China to engage in close cooperation and assistance and to intensify measures taken under the United Nations' Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA), including commitments regarding the International Tracing Instrument (ITI), which requires States to ensure that weapons are properly marked and that records are kept, providing the framework for cooperation in weapons tracing as one of the commitments governments made in the Programme of Action, recalls that improving weapons tracing is now part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;
Amendment 80 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Expresses concern about the number of restrictions that European companies continue to face in China, especially in sectors covered by the ‘Made in China 2025’ plan; calls for the rapid lowering of these restrictions in order to fully harvest the potential of cooperation and synergies between Industry 4.0 schemes in Europe and the ‘Made in China 2025’ strategy in the need for restructuring of our production sectors towards intelligent manufacturing, including cooperation in the development and definition of respective industrial standards in multilateral fora;
Amendment 89 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Expresses concern that all major European car manufacturers and leading supply industries have announced that production of energy cells related to ambitious schemes to electrify the brand's fleets shall happen entirely in Asia; shares worries expressed by trade unions in the European Union that this could have a devastating effect on the development of know-how and the future production of drive systems, currently forming an important industrial pillar in several EU Member States;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas the contrasting political developments offollowing years of pragmatic coexistence and dialogue, since the Democratic Progress Party's victory in Taiwan relations between the People’'s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan, with an increasingly authoritarian and national have been characterised by provocation and mutual obstructiveness; whereas the independence call made by the governing Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan and the explicit confirmation, at the last conference of the Chinese Communist pParty-state regime on one side and a multi-party democracy, of the objective of reunification of the mainland with Taiwan run counter to the maintenance onf the other,'status quo' in relations and may raises the danger of an escalation of the cross- strait relations;
Amendment 91 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Calls on the Commission to provide for a European Union presence in the China International Import Expo to be held in Shanghai in November 2018, and to provide in particular SMEs with an opportunity to present themselves; Calls on the Commission to reach out to chambers of commerce in particular in Member States that are currently less involved in trade with China in order to promote this opportunity;
Amendment 93 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Expresses concern about industrial overcapacity in China’sthe global steel sector, including largely also producers in China; recalls the commitments made at the first ministerial meeting of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity in 2017 to refrain from providing market-distorting subsidies.; welcomes the measures taken by the Chinese government to abolish a range of subsidies and to introduce export taxes on certain steel products; deplores the millions of job losses that have occurred subsequently among workers in the Chinese steel and electricity sectors and calls on the EU to support programmes for re-training the labour force; Calls on the EU and on China to work together to find solutions on necessary economic transition models for regions and cities previously depending entirely on steel production and coal power plants and to add this social and environmental dimension to the deliberations taking place in the G20 Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity;
Amendment 100 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Recommends to the Union and to the Chinese government to launch a joint initiative in the G20 to establish a Global Forum on Aluminium Excess Capacity, with a mandate to address the entire value chain of Bauxite, Alumina & Aluminium Industry including raw material prices and environmental aspects;
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. CallNotes that China is oin the EU Member States to urgthroes of a complex development process which, in the light of its political, social, environmentaly and decisively step up collaboration and unity on their China policies, with a view to speaking with one voice, and strongly suggonomic scope and aims, has serious implications for many development processes around the world, but is at the same time a prerequisite for effective action to addrests taking advantage of Europe’s much greater collective bargaining power with China, and that Europe defends its free democracies so as to better face up to China’s systematic efforts to influence its politicians and civil society, in order to shape an opinion mohe wide range of global challenges facing the international community, and thus also the EU; calls on the EU Member States to step up collaboration on their China policies, so that they are better able, on the basis of existing formats, to coordinate their efforts to re conducivle to China’s strategic interests; is concerned that Chinahe interests of the EU and its also attempting to influence educational and academic institutions and their curriculaMember States, on the one hand, and China's strategic interests, on the other; proposes that the EU and the Member States foster high-quality Europeanspecialist think tanks on China in order to ensurincrease the availability of independent expert advice for strategic orientations and decision-making;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on those Member States participating in the 16+1 format to carry out sound analysis and scrNotes that China, 11 EU Member States from central and eastern Europe and five applicant countries have been holding regular high-level meetings since 2012 and developing a joint trade and investment initiative, the 16+1 format; notes that, despite efforts to place it on an institutional footing, cooperation in the 16+1 format does not take place in accordance with a set pattern, but iny of suggested infrastructure projects and to ensure not to compromise national and European interests for short-term each instance involves only a few economically powerful partners and thus reflects specific political and economic circumstances and interests; notes the legitimate interest of the Member States participating in the 16+1 format, against the backdrop of years of economic stagnation in the EU and the Member States, in securing, through cooperation with China on key infrastructure projects and innovative technologies and provision of the relevant financial support, and long-term commitments to Chinese involvement in strategic infrastructure projects and potentially greater political influence, which would additional boost for their own economic development; calls on the Commission to ensure that the projects which are implemented no longer employ heavily polluting technologies and focus more on developing synergies in the area of the circular economy and coordinating developments under industry 4.0 and the 'Made in China 2025' strategy; welcomes China's decision, prompted by the lopsided and contradictory way in which the current cooperation arrangements are developing, to reduce the frequency of meetings in the 16+1 format in order to coundtermine the EU’s common suggestions that it is attempting to exert poslitions on Chinacal influence on the countries involved and, by extension, the EU;
Amendment 151 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Emphasises that the potential of cooperation formats like 16+1 or the BRI can only be exploited to the full if they are developed by all the countries involved as an open, flexible platform for the reconciliation of interests which offers all parties mutual benefits and opportunities;
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Notes that China's long-term economic development model, which hinges on openness and reform, a strong emphasis on exports, very low wage costs and efforts to encourage the inflow of foreign investment, has left the country highly dependent on consumer demand, above all in the USA, but in the EU as well; notes that the fiscal focus of the Chinese Government's responses to the global financial crisis which began in 2008 have led to an over-accumulation of assets and, hence, overcapacity in many sectors of the economy, but also in housing and other infrastructure sectors; notes that the Chinese Government is seeking to alter this development model by stimulating domestic demand, reducing over-capacities in sectors such as steel and investing excess capital in other parts of the world;
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Notes that the scale of China's economic policy rethink is generating closer rivalry with the USA and increasingly with the EU, in that China, in an effort to secure the basis for its own economic development, is seeking to develop a key role as an investor and trading partner in regions such as Latin America, Africa and central and south- east Asia; calls on the Commission to address the competing interests which underpin this rivalry only in the context of multilateral negotiations and bodies, in order to avert a trade war which would be damaging to all sides;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Concludes that the Chinese Government has in the BRI found a very effective narrative framework for elements of its foreign policy and that EU public diplomacy efforts need to be strengthened in the light of this development; suggests that data on all Chinese infrastructure investments in EU Member Sta global policy geared to development cooperation; welcomes the Council's support for EU- China cooperation on the BRI provided that the latter is developed as an open platform, is consistent with market rules and EU and international requirements and standards, complements EU policies and focuses on projects which generates be shared with the EU and other Member Stanefits for all the participants and in all the countries along the planned routes; recalls that such investments are part of an overall strategy to have Chinese state-on the Commission, when giving this development cooperation practical form. to take particular accountrolled or -funded companies take control of supply chains of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030 and the Paris Agreement;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes that the NPC during its last session the NPC made changes to the constitution which further cemented president Xi Jinping’'s position of power and, by merging state and party functions, have increased the control of the party organs over the state apparatus; notes that the corresponding overhaul of the political system of the PRC is being accompanied by a strict approach involving the re-ideologisation of the life of society and a further shift in political focus away from the former uncompromising policy of reform and openness and towards one based on close scrutiny and security in all areas;
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses that the creation of the National Supervisory Commission is probably the most drastic step towards morphing party and state functions, as it will merge the leadership and functions of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Internal Central Disciplinary Commission with those of supervisory bodies at state level; notes that as a result of the comprehensive campaign initiated by the Chinese party and state leadership against corruption, abuses of power, bribery, unethical conduct and waste it is estimated that more than 1.2 million civil servants and state employees at all levels and in all areas have already been removed from their posts, transferred, undergone disciplinary proceedings as party members or prosecuted; takes the view that, if the domestic stability essential to China's development is to be achieved, the CCP must win back the public support it has lost as a result of the moral decline in public life; is concerned about the far- ranging personal consequences of this merger for a large number of people, as it means that the CCP’s anti-corruption campaign can be expanded to prosecute not just party members but all state officials, and all suspects undercan be investigation will be subject to the new commission’s legal proceedings, without having access to civil lawyers and civil courts; ed and sentenced solely in accordance with the rules and procedures laid down by the Internal Central Disciplinary Commission, without having access to civil lawyers, civil courts or any other legal remedy; takes the view that the current hard-line anti-corruption campaign will only help the CCP to win back public trust and resolve the serious social conflicts besetting China if it is placed on a firmly constitutional footing and the mistakes stemming from previous economic policies are remedied;
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Stresses that the institutional and financial strengthening of China’s diplomacy reflects both the high priority given by Xi Jinping to foreign policy as part of his vision to turn China into a global power by 2049; underlines the fact that the establishment of the State International Development Cooperation Agency expresses the great importance that Xi’s leadership attaches to bolstering its global security interests through economic means; concludes, therefore, that over the next five years Chinasecuring a peaceful foreign policy environment in which to honour his many economic and social reform pledges and the PRC's increasingly clearly articulated wish to play a more active, more confident role in international relations and, possibly, to fill the international policy-making vacuum left by the USA's decision to take a new approach; underlines the fact that the establishment of the State International Development Cooperation Agency shows that in future China will continue to draw on the BRI model and focus on closer global development cooperation with various world regions and, against this background, focus its at present scattered resources in this area and place them under the control of a single body outside the trade ministry; concludes, therefore, that over the next five years China, which is already the world's second largest development aid donor after the United States, will be more present internationally and more engaged overseas, with diplomatic initiatives and hard cash; through the instruments of global development cooperation; takes the view that China's efforts are most likely to be successful if it can tailor them to the real interests of its partners and avert negative developments, such as de- industrialisation; emphasises that, given its stated aim of taking on greater international responsibility, China must contribute more to the international debate on joint initiatives to bring about disarmament and overcome existing entrenched attitudes;
Amendment 248 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls for the EU aonfirms its uncond its Member States to do their utmost to urge the PRC to refrain from further military provocation towards Taiwan and endangering peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait; emphasises that all cross- strait disputes should be settled by peaceful means ional commitment to a one-China policy in the context of relations between the PRC and Taiwan; welcomes the fact that in its most recent statement on the EU's China strategy the Council once again explicitly acknowledged that principle; notes that the recent political regime change in Taiwan is giving rise to more vehement calls for independence among the basis of international law; encourages the resumption of official dialoguepopulation of the island China regards as a 'rebel region' and, hence, to an increase in tensions between Beijingthe PRC and Taipei; reiterates its consistent support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organisations, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), where Taiwan’s continuous exclusion is not in lwan; emphasises its belief that in the recent past both sides have jointly developed instruments and policies which would make for peaceful coexistence between the PRC and Taiwan and for cooperation to their mutual benefit; calls for the EU and its Member States to urge both the PRC and Taiwan to stand by the progress achieved in the past and a policy based on the principles of non-interference and peaceful coexistence and to refrain from any form of political or military provocation which would endanger peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait; emphasises that all cross-strait disputes should be settled by peaceful means, in keepineg with the EU’s interests; international law; encourages the resumption of official dialogues between Beijing and Taipei;