This Week's Silk Road Headlines

View this email in your browser

SILK ROAD HEADLINES

24 May 2021

With an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament voted to freeze the ratification of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) until China lifts sanctions on EU politicians [EU parliament freezes China deal ratification until Beijing lifts sanctions]. Beijing imposed those sanctions on EU politicians and researchers in response to the sanctions that the EU had imposed on some Chinese officials accused of being involved in the mass detentions of Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Province of China.

CAI is, according to the European Commission, 'the most ambitious agreement that China has ever concluded’. The deal is meant to open up the Chinese market to EU companies and put those companies on an equal footing in China. The Chinese reacted by saying that the deal is ‘mutually beneficial’ not a ‘favour’ by one side to another, and that China's sanctions were a legitimate response to EU actions. The European Parliament’s resolution is not legally binding but casts doubts on the future of CAI.

Mamad Forough

This week's Silk Road Headlines

EU parliament freezes China deal ratification until Beijing lifts sanctions [Reuters]
Sri Lankan Court: China-built Port City commission needs public assent [ABC News]
China and global development: seven things to read in May [ODI]
China’s Maritime Silk Road and Security in the Red Sea Region [Middle East Institute]
‘Catastrophic’: Sierra Leone sells rainforest for Chinese harbour [The Guardian]
China-Belt and Road Initiative Multilateral Trade Has Reached US$9.2 Trillion In Seven Years [Silk Road Briefing]
China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway: Who is going to pay? [Eurasianet]
Uganda, Kenya team up on old metre gauge rail project eyeing Congo, S. Sudan [The East African]
Sri Lanka’s independent foreign policy paradox [East Asia Forum]
Pakistan Looking for Huge Increases in Central Asian Trade [Silk Road Briefing]
Shwe Kokko Special Economic Zone / Yatai New City [The People’s Map of Global China]

To increase awareness of and facilitate the debate on China's Belt and Road Initiative, the Clingendael Institute publishes Silk Road Headlines, a weekly update on relevant news articles from open sources.

For a free subscription to Silk Road Headlines please click here. For past editions please view our archive.

We link to sites purely on editorial merit. The inclusion of a link to an external website from Silk Road Headlines should not be understood to be an endorsement of that website or the site's owners (or products/services).