As the EU and many countries worldwide impose sanctions on China, Switzerland continues to stay neutral. Due to the treatment of Uighur Muslims in China, many countries called for punitive measures to be taken. If China invades Taiwan, however, the head of the Swiss agency that implements economic sanctions has promised to take the necessary measures that the rest of the EU takes to sanction China. China is one of Switzerland’s largest trade partners, and if Switzerland were to impose the sanctions, the ties could be severed.
Switzerland and China have had great relations for a very long time, it makes sense that Switzerland would be hesitant to follow suit with the rest of the EU. Switzerland seems to currently be in limbo. If they haven’t imposed the sanctions that the rest of the EU has placed in regards to the human rights violations and treatment of the Uighur Muslims, there’s a good chance they won’t. The promised sanctions on China if they were to invade Taiwan would wreck their economy; manufacturing is their largest industry and if that were depleted, the country would fall into an economic crisis. Switzerland’s position on this
This relates to what we’re discussing in class because China will act only on what’s in their self-interest. If they expected no sanctions to be imposed post-invasion, its probable that an invasion would’ve already occurred.