[Epoch Times September 15, 2021]The European Parliament’s plenary meeting on September 14-15 is discussing and voting on the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee’s call for the EU to formulate a draft report on the new strategy of the Chinese Communist Party. Regardless of the result of the vote, the turning point in China-EU relations is difficult to reverse.
Compared with 2020, the changes in EU-China relations this year are quite dramatic. In 2020, China and the U.S. entered into a new cold war, but the CCP won the EU to gain some gains: China became the EU’s largest trading partner for the first time; the two sides signed the China-EU Geographical Indications Agreement and decided to build two high-level dialogue mechanisms in the environmental climate and digital fields, and jointly build China-EU green cooperation, Digital partnership; most importantly, the China-EU investment agreement negotiations have been completed despite the opposition of the United States. Therefore, when the Chinese Communist Party’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was interviewed by state media, he was proud of discussing China-EU relations.
However, in 2021, things have changed. This is prominently manifested in the following things.
One is the war of sanctions.On March 22, the EU launched the first sanctions against the Chinese Communist regime’s mass persecution of human rights after the June Fourth Movement, including four senior officials in Xinjiang and an entity. The EU is actually more cautious about the sanctions this time. It may just be a tactical act to express a coordinated position with the United States. However, the CCP doubled the return and counter-sanctioned eight European representatives of public opinion, two academics, and four entities (including two institutions of the European Parliament). The sanctions war between the two sides has escalated. The European Parliament freezes the review of the China-Europe Investment Agreement, which has defeated the CCP’s major economic united front efforts.
Second, economic countermeasures.For example, on May 5, the European Union announced plans to reduce its dependence on the CCP and other foreign suppliers in six strategic areas, including raw materials, raw materials, and semiconductors. According to Reuters, the 19-page draft mentioned that Europe relies on Chinese supplies for half of 137 strategically sensitive products. In another example, the European Union is working on a bill to prevent foreign buyers receiving distorted foreign subsidies from acquiring European companies or participating in public tenders, paying particular attention to resisting unfair competition from the CCP. “The openness of the EU single market is our biggest asset, but openness requires fairness.” Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, said, “If (foreign) subsidies will be the best It is unfair for European workers or consumers to drive companies out of the market. This must stop.” The EU’s position is becoming firmer and stronger.
The third is to counter the CCP’s “One Belt One Road” initiative.On July 12, the Brussels meeting of 27 EU foreign ministers formally adopted the launch of the “Global Connecting Europe” strategy, which is to build a European-centric global infrastructure construction network, which will be implemented in 2022. This will enhance the EU’s competitiveness, help diversify the value chain and reduce strategic dependence. Although the plan did not mention the CCP, an EU diplomat who participated in the drafting of the strategy said that the document was “full of China.”
Fourth, Lithuania fought against the CCP, and the European Union supported it.Lithuania established diplomatic relations with the Chinese Communist regime in 1991, and relations have developed steadily. However, since 2019, relations have deteriorated rapidly. Lithuania has successively condemned the Chinese Communist Party in the National Security Report, Hong Kong’s anti-transmission to China, and Xinjiang genocide allegations. In particular, on May 22 this year, Lithuania withdrew from the CCP-led “17+1 cooperation”; on July 20, Lithuania announced that it would allow the establishment of a Taiwan representative office in Lithuania. The CCP retaliated and recalled each other’s ambassadors (this is the first time that an EU member state has recalled an ambassador to Beijing), and the relationship between the two parties has been reduced to the charge d’affaires level. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania informed the European Union about the recent political, diplomatic and public relations pressure imposed by Beijing on the bilateral level, and called on European countries to reduce their dependence on the CCP and reassess the EU’s strategic relationship with the CCP. In the EU, from the meeting of foreign ministers (September 3, the first meeting of EU foreign ministers to discuss the CCP issue since the sanctions war) to the members of the European Parliament, they even expressed their support for Lithuania and emphasized unity against the CCP.
Fifth, Friends Taiwan.On September 1, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament passed the first report on Taiwan-the “EU-Taiwan Political Relations and Cooperation” report, calling on the EU to enhance its “political relations” with Taiwan and promoting the rename of the “European Economic and Trade Office” in Taiwan. As the “EU Office in Taiwan”, Taiwan is included in the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategic considerations, and Taiwan is supported to participate fully in relevant international organizations as an observer.
Europe, the U.S., and Japan coordinated to counter the CCP
These incidents are the sole actions of the European Union. In addition to this, the European Union (or some of its member states) has also strengthened coordination with the United States and Japan to jointly respond to the CCP’s “holistic threat”. E.g:
1. On March 24, Brinken held talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Foreign Policy Chief Representative Josep Borrell successively, and issued a joint statement after the meeting with Borrell , Announced the resumption of the US-EU-China Dialogue.
2. On March 30, some European Union countries and 14 countries including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, Japan, and South Korea raised “common concerns” on the newly published report on the origin of the new coronavirus by the World Health Organization.
3. On July 19, the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom jointly condemned the Chinese government’s global cyber attacks, including the attack on the Microsoft email server in March this year. This is also the first time NATO, composed of 30 countries, condemned China for launching a cyber attack. Japan, Australia, Canada and New Zealand also joined the condemnation.
4. Through the G7 Summit Communiqué, NATO Summit Communiqué, U.S.-EU Summit Communiqué, etc., jointly and urgently curb the CCP’s eagerness in the Taiwan Strait, clarify the CCP’s “systematic security challenge” to the West, and establish a high-level U.S.-EU trade agreement. The Technical Committee (TTC) agreed to launch the “Build Back Better World” (Build Back Better World, B3W) program proposed by the United States. Improving the infrastructure of developing countries with a total value of more than 40 trillion U.S. dollars.”
5. Cooperate with the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other NATO countries to send warships to the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region to implement “Freedom of Navigation” operations. On September 6, the “Queen Elizabeth” aircraft carrier strike group arrived in Japan; Britain announced that it would permanently deploy two warships in the Asia-Pacific region. France is stepping up its demonstrations in the Asia-Pacific. For example, French warships completed three-day joint military exercises with the United States, Japan, India and Australia in the Indian Ocean, and then held joint military exercises with India and the United Arab Emirates in the Western Indian Ocean. On the evening of August 11, France’s “Provence” The FS Provence frigate suddenly appeared and anchored off the west coast of Taiwan’s Fangyuan, Changhua County, and so on. This summer, Germany also sent a warship to Asia for the first time in 20 years. The frigate “Bavaria” set off for India and the Pacific to participate in joint training and surveillance activities in waters near Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
Through the above examples, the EU’s China policy is undergoing a substantial transformation: internally build consensus and will to fight against the CCP, and form an “Alliance of Democracies” on the basis of common values externally with the United States, Japan and other countries to jointly respond to the CCP’s challenges. .
So, why has the EU’s China policy undergone such a substantial change this year? There are three main factors.
First, the economic competition with the Chinese Communist Party has intensified. The “Chinese Communist Economic Model” has become more and more harmful to the EU economy, and the complementarity of the Chinese and European economies has been increasingly replaced by competition. On September 4, Siegfried Russwurm, the chairman of the influential German Federal Industrial Confederation (BDI), said in an interview with Deutsche News Agency that “European companies must recognize when doing business with China. The insurmountable red line.” He said that whoever wants to continue to enjoy the EU’s free market access, “who must abide by the basic rules and open their own markets in the same way.” Russ-Ulm also stated that a relatively broad consensus has been formed within the EU on relations with China, and the “Five Eyes Alliance” countries have also reached an agreement.
Second, the end of the Merkel era and the “boost” of the CCP’s war wolf diplomacy. Merkel has served as German Chancellor for 16 years and has visited China 12 times. She is the main figure in the appeasement policy of Germany and the EU. The China-EU Investment Agreement is her main focus. Her fading out (September 26 is Germany’s election day and Merkel’s retirement. Many people predict that this will be a turning point in German-Chinese relations), which will help Germany and the EU as a whole get out of the swamp of appeasement. Niels Schmid, the spokesman for foreign affairs of the German Social Democratic Party, said that any new prime minister must change his attitude towards China because “China (the CCP) has also changed.” And one of the biggest changes of the CCP is the increasing domestic autocracy, foreign bullying, and rampant diplomacy with wolf wars. This has greatly strengthened the EU’s aversion to the CCP, and it has become more aware of the gap in values and ideologies between the two. In fact, in March of this year, the European People’s Party Group, the largest party group in the European Parliament (Merkel’s coalition party is one of the members of the party group)’s first China strategy document, directly confronted the institutional competition, which affirmed that it will continue to compete with the system. The necessity of dialogue between the Chinese Communist Party has also highlighted the importance of the “strict reciprocity principle.”
Third, the Biden administration strengthened its alliance strategy. After the Biden administration came to power this year, the tension in Sino-US relations has not been greatly eased, and the bipolar confrontation between the United States and China has developed in depth. Biden has made great efforts to strengthen relations with the European Union and NATO. Although there are differences between the United States and Europe on the issue of Afghanistan, they are generally the same. The basic axis of US-EU relations determines the direction of EU-China relations. The trilateral coordination of the United States, Europe, and Japan, and the cooperation of the Western world are the general trend.
Concluding remarks
The change in the EU’s China policy is now reflected in the vote of the European Parliament on the draft report calling on the EU to formulate a new strategy to deal with the Chinese Communist Party.
The previous draft, which was passed by the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee with a high vote on July 15, outlines the six key points of the EU’s new policy towards China, namely “cooperating to respond to global challenges” and “urging China to pay attention to and abide by human rights and international norms. “, “Identify risks and vulnerabilities”, “Establish partnerships with like-minded countries or organizations” and “Promote strategic autonomy and defend European interests and values.”
Although, even if the draft report is passed, there is still some way to go before it can be implemented. However, the above-mentioned six main points show the real change in EU’s China policy, and at the same time, it also marks the CCP’s attempt to win over the EU and separate Europe and the United States. Hit a wall.
Editor in charge: Gao Yi#
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