This ambition for leadership is the main difference compared with past eras. The “China Dream” proposed by President Xi would be the means of achieving this. There has, however, been a significant change in the attitude of the current Chinese leaders who, with the “Made in China 2025” initiative, have revealed the ambition to China a global technological power. Still, China did not necessarily try to export its values. This concept of centrality was reflected in kowtow, the act of prostrating oneself before the emperor. Angus Maddison has pointed out that, in 1820, it still produced 30 per cent of the world’s GDP: more than Europe and the US combined.Ĭhina has always regarded itself as the Middle Empire, the great civilisation based on the concept of “everything under the heavens”. For eighteen centuries, up to the first Industrial Revolution, China was the richest country in the world. AssertiveĬhina is reclaiming what it regards as its rightful place in international politics. New Chinese characteristicsįor us Europeans, the coronavirus crisis has accelerated trends observed in recent years and has brought to light some of our weaknesses in the relationship with China, which has become gradually more assertive, expansionist and authoritarian.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, made it clear that Beijing had not honoured its commitments to ensure access to the Chinese market on a reciprocal basis and reduce aid to state-owned companies, and had thus placed European companies at a clear competitive disadvantage. At the June summit with China, the EU expressed its disappointment to Beijing about the lack of progress in implementing the agreements reached at the previous meeting in 2019. The aim is to conclude by the end of 2020 the EU–China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, which we have been negotiating since 2013.
#Pompeo checkmate plus#
Before the end of the year, COVID-19 permitting, a summit is to be held in Leipzig (Germany), which should be attended by the Chinese President and the Presidents of the European Council and Commission, plus the 27 European Heads of State or Government. The 22nd EU–China Summit took place on 22 June, by videoconference, lasting much longer than the scheduled time. Discussions are ongoing to schedule a possible Leaders’ level video conference, bringing together the Presidents of the European Council and Commission, as well as Chancellor Angela Merkel, representing Germany, which holds the six-month presidency of the EU, and President Xi Jinping. Despite the difficulties created by the coronavirus pandemic, high-level meetings have never been so intense. In this new geo-political scenario, 2020 could go down in history as a key year in EU–China relations.
A balanced EU–China relationship is essential to address and eventually resolve major world problems, from pandemics to climate change, including the building of effective multilateralism. Unity is vital in every area of our relationship with Beijing because no European country is capable on its own of defending its interests and values against a country the size and might of China. We can only answer this question positively if member states present a united front and make use of our Community instruments, in particular the power of our Single Market. The role of the European Union in such a scenario and the question of how it should deal with a China increasingly pursuing a strategy of global influence are issues of fundamental importance for our future. Was it the coronavirus that led to this change? While this unexpected, exogenous factor has nothing to do with ideologies, it has certainly acted as a catalyst for exacerbating an underlying rivalry that will become the predominant geopolitical trend in the post-virus era. Today, the rivalry between the two extends to everything, involving closures of consulates and mutual recriminations, reflecting the struggle for world geopolitical supremacy between the two big superpowers, as if we were in a new Cold War.
That promised has remained unfulfilled, however. Everything in the relationship between the United States and China changed when, at the beginning of this year, they signed an agreement in Washington that was meant to pave the way to eventually end the trade war that had started in 2018.
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