(TibetanReview.net, Oct17’25) – The European Parliament has on Oct 16 called for unconditional release of the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima who has continued to remain disappeared since being abducted by the Chinese government in Apr 1995 days after he was recognized by the Dalai Lama. The occasion was the 42nd EU-China Inter-parliamentary Meeting (IPM) held in Brussels.
The five-member delegation from the National People’s Congress of China (NPC) was led by Mr Fu Ziying, Member of the Standing Committee of NPC and Chair of the 42nd China-EU IPM Delegation. It counterpart was the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China (D-CN).
Over the course of the sessions, they held lively debates about, amongst other subjects, update on political developments in the European Union and China; regional and global issues of mutual interest: global and regional security, climate change, sustainable development, trade and investment and future of EU-China relations, said the D-CN in a statement posted on the europarl.europa.eu website Oct 16.
On human rights, the D-CN statement said: “MEPs raised a number of long-standing concerns regarding the human rights situation in China, referring amongst other to the cases of Sakharov laureate Ilham Tohti, Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai, the Panchen Lama, and Swedish citizen Gui Minhai. They reiterated the call for their unconditional release, as well as for the full lifting of remaining restrictions imposed against European citizens and organisations in Mar 2021.”
It is not clear how China responded to those calls. On the 11th Panchen Lama recognized by the Dalai Lama, Beijing has consistently refused to answer questions, including from the UN, over the last three decades, insisting he does not wish to be disturbed, suggesting that he is alive. He was six years old at the time and China replaced him with Gyaincain Norbu, son of a communist party couple, as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 itself.
The two parliaments started the IPM exchange in 2018. However, it remained on hold since 2021 after China imposed sanctions on MEPs, the EP’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Political and Security Committee, as well as national Members of Parliaments, researchers, and organisations in response to human rights related sanctions imposed by the European Council. Earlier this year, China unilaterally lifted the restrictions it had imposed on the European Parliament in Mar 2021, while the EU’s own restrictive measures related to human rights concerns remain in place, said the D-CN statement.
“This was the first occasion since 2018 for both delegations to engage in such extensive discussions on the full range of issues in the EU and China’s relation. The D-CN endeavours to uphold and develop exchanges and contacts with the Chinese side, notwithstanding deep differences, and mutual criticism. Both sides agreed to continue these exchanges next year,” the statement said.
China stated reason or condition for holding dialogues on human rights is that it should not be criticised openly, that the issues should be discussed behind closed doors.