The Wall Street Journal | By: Nektaria Stamouli and William Wilkes | June 19, 2017 1:06 p.m. ET:
Greece’s blockage of EU rebuke shows how China’s investments in bloc’s strapped economies pay off.
Greece’s recent veto of a European Union statement condemning Chinese human-rights violations shows the return Beijing is getting on its multibillion-dollar investments in the bloc’s cash-strapped periphery.
China’s acquisition spree in Western Europe last year raised fears about the commercial costs of losing cutting-edge technologies. Less foreseen was the degree to which Beijing’s investment in poorer parts of Europe appears to have bought silence on China’s human-rights record, according to analysts, diplomats and human-rights organizations.
On Thursday, Greece was alone among the 28 EU members in objecting to criticism of China by the bloc, which sought to challenge Beijing’s crackdown on political activists and dissidents.
“Greece’s position is that unproductive and in many cases selective criticism against specific countries doesn’t facilitate the promotion of human rights in these states, nor the development of their relation with the EU,” a Greek foreign ministry official said.
EU officials played down the rift.
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