Europe wants to reconsider its relationship with China, without yet knowing exactly in which direction. In any case, it must shed its own naivety and, after its near-absolute dependence on Russian gas, must not develop new dependencies.
That’s what Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this afternoon after she and European leaders held a three-hour ‘strategic’ discussion on China. She was referring to the increasingly important market for chips, lithium and rare earths, which – she said earlier – ‘will soon be more important than oil and gas’.
The new superpower is a formidable competitor, ‘hostile’ and ‘authoritarian’ according to some, which is developing rapidly militarily and striving for global political and economic dominance. And who also keeps a hand over the Russian aggressor in Ukraine.
At the same time, it remains a partner when it comes to climate policy, according to President Macron, for example. According to him, the leaders already agreed in Versailles this spring that Europe should strive for ‘strategic autonomy’.
Drafting new game rules
,,We have been naive, we were an open supermarket. We need to set new rules of the game and check our critical infrastructure for vulnerabilities,” Macron said this afternoon. “Shouldn’t European companies contribute technologically to Chinese communication networks? Then they can’t join us either.” He counts on the European Commission ‘in the coming weeks and months’ to bring the currently divergent positions of the Member States closer together, and Council President Michel also spoke of ‘a policy of economic reciprocity’.
Prime Minister Rutte: “We see that China’s assertiveness on the world stage is increasing and our relationship has only become more complex in the past year.” In his view, Europe must act ‘self-consciously and independently, and therefore not be an extension of America’. US President Biden has been chasing China for some time now. Because of him, the country was first mentioned in a NATO communiqué last year, partly because of the expansion of its nuclear arsenal and lack of transparency about its military modernization.
Chancellor Scholz sees no reason for much change in the relationship. Europe has always wanted to be an open trading bloc, he says. “We should not now side with those who promote deglobalization.” Scholz will travel to China next month for a bilateral visit, receiving criticism from fellow leaders. The Baltic countries in particular would prefer an EU delegation, ‘because we are stronger together’.
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