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The future of trans-Atlantic collaboration on China: What the EU-China summit showed

The future of trans-Atlantic collaboration on China: What the EU-China summit showed
Published in 1 July, 2020
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The EU-China Summit this week made clear that while both the United States and Europe are both moving toward a tougher and more critical view of China, European governments aren’t anywhere near as tough. Instead, they are trying to advance their distinct interests, which means emphasizing cooperation and partnership with China along with vigorous competition and criticism.

Understanding our allies’ approaches to China is important because virtually every critique of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy charges that his administration acts “unilaterally” and that we should be “working with our allies.” Whenever presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden discusses foreign policy, he is explicit that working with our allies will be a pillar of his approach, including on China policy. And rightly so — the U.S. will be much stronger and have greater leverage in addressing China if we develop and execute policies jointly with our allies and friends.

But what common policies are possible? We can’t work on a collaborative approach towards China unless we first understand how our allies see and act on their own interests. We need to be as clear-eyed as possible, not cherry-picking European viewpoints that match our own and misperceiving what collaborations with Europe are realistic. And we will need to take European interests into account as we work with them to forge collaborative policies and actions.

PARTNERSHIP AND RIVALRY

This week’s EU-China summit indicates both the potential and the challenges of trans-Atlantic collaboration on China. Europe’s position towards China has toughened. But the official EU statement issued after the summit is headlined: “EU-China Summit: Defending EU interests and values in a complex and vital partnership.” The word “partnership” has basically disappeared in U.S. policy and most policy debates about China, replaced by “competition,” “rivalry,” even “confrontation.” The nuanced U.S. policy advocates add various degrees of “cooperation,” while others omit that word altogether. Yes, the EU’s headlined “partnership” with China is labelled “complex” and requires “defending EU interests and values,” but partnership with China is still seen as “vital.”

In the Q&A after her press conference statement, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also referred specifically to the March 2019 EU Commission document titled: “EU-China: A strategic outlook.” It is the most important recent statement of EU policy, and clearly signaled the sharper EU approach to China, but it describes the EU-China relationship in a multifaceted way:

China is, simultaneously, in different policy areas, a cooperation partner with whom the EU has closely aligned objectives, a negotiating partner with whom the EU needs to find a balance of interests, an economic competitor in the pursuit of technological leadership, and a systemic rival promoting alternative models of governance. This requires a flexible and pragmatic whole-of-EU approach enabling a principled defence of interests and values.

Many observers have correctly underscored the “systemic rival” concept as an importantly new and much tougher way the EU describes China. But too many observers have ignored the other concepts that the EU embraces in the very same sentence: “cooperation partner,” “negotiating partner,” and “economic competitor.” Von der Leyen confirmed that this multifaceted strategy remains the EU approach, and indeed we saw this complex approach in action this week. The official EU statements after the summit were tough on several subjects — most importantly, the economic relationship with China and human rights — and on others struck a more cooperative tone.

Source: Brookings