Overview

• China informed the European Parliament this week that it has lifted entry bans and business restrictions on Reinhard Bütikofer and his family.
• The four-year-old sanctions were imposed in 2021 in retaliation for EU measures over alleged Uighur rights abuses in Xinjiang.
• In April, Beijing revoked sanctions on active MEPs but kept Bütikofer on its blacklist after he left the European Parliament in 2024.
• Bütikofer confirmed his delisting and criticized the continued blacklisting of think tanks like the Mercator Institute for China Studies as inconsistent.
• Observers note it remains unclear whether this delisting is directly linked to the upcoming EU-China summit in Beijing later this month.