U.S. Congressman Asks the EU to Join Efforts to Fight Against the CCP

On June 22nd, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the Premier of the State Council of China, Li Keqiang, had a virtual meeting discussing issues of human rights and the responses to the pandemic. Michael McCaul, an U.S. Congressman, called on the European Union to question the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as to why it concealed the epidemic and called for a joint effort to confront the CCP's threat. Ursula von der Leyen posted on Twitter: “Today’s #EUChina summit is a much-needed opportunity to move forward on all aspects of our cooperation. We’ll discuss wide-ranging topics, from trade to climate action, from sustainable development to human rights, from digitalisation and foreign policy to #coronavirus (CCP virus) response.” The EU officials revealed that the CCP has been putting pressure on the EU member states who have criticized the CCP’s response to the pandemic and that the CCP has been spreading disinformation about the pandemic on social media. The senior officials who assisted in the preparation of the summit said that the pandemic has exacerbated concerns in the EU about the CCP taking on the responsibility of being one of the world’s largest economies. Moreover, Germany has postponed, due to the pandemic, a summit with EU leaders and Xi Jinping that was planned to be held in September this year. However, diplomats indicated that this was partly due to the impasse in negotiations of investments between the two sides. On June 22nd, the Chinese state-run media claimed that the leaders from both parties reiterated their commitment to reaching a China-Europe investment agreement by 2020.