Obstacles to better China-EU relations can be cleared

The EU wants China to become more involved in global issues such as climate change, health and debt relief, which is why decoupling is impossible
The two must continue to engage to resolve their differences over trade imbalances and security issues like Ukraine and Taiwan

Josep Borrell Fontelles

Published: 9:30am, 13 Oct, 2023

Why you can trust SCMP

I have come to China to have frank exchanges about obstacles that exist in our EU-China relations, and to talk about how to manage this relationship more effectively. Indeed, we need to work with China, just as China needs to work with us, as the world has become ever more interdependent.

We are not afraid of a multipolar world. A multipolar world reflects the fact that wealth has spread to an increasing number of nations, and we welcome this. Yet for it to function peacefully, this multipolarity requires regulation. However, while multipolarity has increased, there has been a decline in multilateralism.

We acknowledge the need for reform of many international institutions, including the UN Security Council. We should work on that together. However, without shared rules, power politics – the rule of the strong over the weak – will prevail. This would be unacceptable.

We do not seek to curb China’s rise globally. On the contrary, we want China to become more involved in global issues such as climate change, health, and debt relief in developing countries. We wish to cooperate with China on all major global challenges, which is why any form of decoupling is not only undesirable but also impossible.

This is clearly the case with climate. The position China will adopt at COP28 UN climate conference – especially if it features more ambitious climate-related targets – will send an important message to the rest of the world, given the country’s global influence and its position as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter.

On the economic front, our relationship is currently far from satisfactory. We are a major export market for China, but this relationship has for many years been an imbalanced one, and that imbalance continues to worsen.

A view of a Nio House, a showroom of Chinese electric carmaker Nio, in Berlin, Germany, on August 17. Europe is a major export market for China. Photo: Reuters

In a large part, this imbalance has continued to grow due to persistent difficulties European companies have accessing the Chinese market. We have raised these difficulties repeatedly with the Chinese authorities. We have observed a recent sharp downturn in European investments in China. Without better access to the Chinese market, European investors are turning away.

If the European public think that trade imbalances with China are endangering key sectors of our industry, they will demand more protectionist measures. It is therefore in our common interest to address the imbalances in our trade relations.

In recent months, the European Union has decided to “de-risk” its economy. This has stemmed principally from the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion. We were forced to diversify our supplies of critical goods and raw materials at incredible speed and at high cost. When almost all our imports in some key sectors derive from one source, we must mitigate the risks to our supply chains from such strategic dependencies, in order to enhance our economic resilience.

China itself has been pursuing this kind of policy for years. In 2020, President Xi Jinping said that China “must build a domestic supply system that is independently controllable, secure and reliable so that self-circulation can be accomplished at critical moments”. It is de-risking with Chinese characteristics.

It is also important to resume people-to-people exchanges between Europe and China, be they personal, economic or scientific. They are currently at a very low level.

China often complains that it is misunderstood. In order to help us understand China better, more Europeans need to be able to go to China to work and study. Unfortunately, European companies wishing to send expatriates to China currently face considerable difficulties.

I was pleased to learn that China is planning to amend its legislation on the transfer of data by foreign companies. It is a useful step in the right direction. Gestures of this kind are what we need to restore trust.

Finally, security is an important aspect of the relationship between Europe and China. We have to convey our concerns to China in a frank way.

Since the outbreak of the war against Ukraine, China’s ambivalent position has been difficult to understand in Europe, given the fact that it is clear that one country (Ukraine) is being attacked, and the other one is the attacker (Russia). Europeans have felt that China has not been using its unique influence to persuade Russia to halt this aggression.

03:42

Ukraine says Russian strike killed over 50 in one of the deadliest attacks of the war

We are not asking China to adopt the same standpoint as the EU. However, China cannot have it both ways. In Ukraine, China’s interests are clearly different from Russia’s: China wants to engage with Europe, Russia seeks to demonise it.

The other major security issue in EU-China relations is Taiwan. Our position is clear: no recognition of Taiwan as an independent state; no to intimidation, coercion and provocation by any side; no to the use of force; yes to bilateral ties with Taiwan, which do not imply any kind of political recognition as an independent country; yes to resolving tensions through meaningful and open dialogue.

Europe takes China seriously. It expects the same in return. Despite our differences, there is scope to work together. It is up to us to broaden that scope together. That is the purpose of my visit.

Josep Borrell Fontelles is the European Union high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice-president of the European Commission