The United States and Europe need to strengthen "sanctions cooperation", which is worthy of vigilance
The world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, the international balance of power continues to change, and the geostrategic pattern is deeply adjusted. The new crown epidemic has further magnified the differences between different systems and intensified the differentiation and conflicts of interests between different countries. There are some interesting new trends, new trends and new developments in the strategic game of major powers.
During Biden's just-concluded visit to Europe, the joint statement of the US-EU Summit deserves special attention. The statement not only emphasized the need for a strong "transatlantic partnership" to meet China's challenges, but also clearly stated in paragraph 24 that "cooperation in the application of sanctions must be strengthened to advance our shared foreign policy and security goals."
This is an extremely important signal. It shows that in the face of China's increasingly powerful legal countermeasures, the United States is trying to establish a broader alliance of sanctions against China under the "Trans-Atlantic Partnership Mechanism", and through the cooperation and coordination of US-European sanctions against China. Mechanism to strengthen the deterrence of sanctions against China, and comprehensively upgrade the "weapon system" of legal warfare against China.
Although there is still considerable uncertainty about whether the US-EU sanctions cooperation mechanism planned by this statement can be implemented and promoted in accordance with the intentions of the United States in the future, it nakedly regards the construction of a foreign sanctions cooperation mechanism as a means to contain other countries (especially China and Russia). Important means, the possible future impact on these countries and the destruction of international law should not be underestimated. This is worthy of our country's high attention, and respond to all aspects of diplomacy, law, policy, and public opinion as soon as possible.
According to the "United Nations Charter", which is the cornerstone of contemporary international law, only sanctions imposed on sovereign states authorized by the United Nations Security Council have legitimacy. Therefore, except in certain circumstances, for example, certain groups of countries (the European Union and the African Union, etc.) authorize the organization to impose sanctions on the countries within the group in their articles of association, or the victimized countries subject to unlawful sanctions to take "countermeasures." The imposing sanctions on a sovereign country authorized by the Security Council is a breach of international law and damage to the authority of the United Nations. Regardless of whether the sanctions are initiated by one country or multiple countries, they cannot change the essential nature of such sanctions as unilateral sanctions and without international law. Not only that, from a logical and effective point of view, sanctions against sovereign states are initiated without the authorization of the UN Security Council, and the more countries participating in the sanctions, the greater the damage to the authority of the United Nations and the greater the lethality to the international order. Therefore, the joint statement of the US-Europe summit attempts to strengthen international cooperation in external sanctions under the "transatlantic partnership", which is a blatant and serious breach of contemporary international law.
The irony is that this statement that defied international law and the authority of the United Nations, but also vowed to say, "We are committed to maintaining an international order based on rules and with the United Nations at its core." Such false diplomatic statements and their dangerous consequences that undermine the foundation of international law in the name of upholding international law should arouse great concern and resolute opposition from the international community, including our country.
In order to earnestly safeguard the international system with the United Nations as the core and firmly maintain the international order based on international law, China and other countries that preside over international justice should put forward opposition and condemnation orders in widely representative and authoritative international multilateral occasions such as the United Nations General Assembly. The issues of side sanctions and the draft resolution, in a manner that truly complies with international law and a more powerful gesture of cooperation, resolutely responded to the illegal attempt of the United States to coerce other countries to join its unilateral sanctions in its own way.
From the perspective of the domestic rule of law, in the face of the continuous escalation of the breadth and intensity of the US sanctions against China, my country should accelerate the improvement of the anti-sanction laws and regulations and realize the "realization" of the anti-sanction system as soon as possible. It should be pointed out that the "Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law" passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on June 10 has 16 articles. There are many declarative and authorizing clauses, and the directly operable clauses are relatively insufficient. Therefore, the counter-sanctions As far as the construction of the legal system is concerned, the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law is only a crucial first step. To this end, my country must speed up the formulation of supporting anti-sanctions systems, support the implementation of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law with specific institutional rules, and speed up the construction and improvement of a comprehensive, powerfully enforced, offensive and defensive anti-sanction law and regulation system. Increased pressure on external sanctions.
What needs to be emphasized is that what we have witnessed and experienced right now is just the beginning of a major change in the world that has not been seen in a century. In the context of the strategic game of great powers, it can be expected that the next period will become a strategic critical period for the Chinese nation to achieve a great rejuvenation. More arduous, complex, and severe external tests and challenges may still be behind.
Nevertheless, judging from the trend of human development, we firmly believe that, as a socialist country with a population of 1.4 billion and institutional advantages, no matter how the world situation evolves in the short term, deep-level changes in the international structure and substantial changes in the external environment In the final analysis, it depends on the pace of our own development and growth, and it depends on us always standing on the side of conforming to the trend of historical development. Therefore, as long as we unswervingly adhere to the basic national policy of reform and opening up, we will work hard on our own development and construction, continue to hold high the banner of building a community with a shared future for mankind, prevent conflicts during management and control of crises, and resolve risks in response to challenges. "Hedging "decoupling" and using the "anti-sanction shield" to prevent and respond to the "sanction spear" will surely be able to effectively respond to various external challenges in the process of national rejuvenation, and in the process to build a more fair and just world order Contribute to China's strength.
