Andrew Hammond

Opinion | EU policy focus suggests relations with China could join Russia in deep freeze

Ensuring energy security and agreeing on measures against Russia are high on the agenda in Brussels, but equally significant is the EU’s stance on China

China-EU relations have been deteriorating for years and could soon get worse amid talk of Europe ‘increasing realism’ and ‘leaving naivety behind’

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) meets EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 21. Photo: Xinhua

Andrew Hammond

Published: 2:30am, 20 Oct 2022Updated: 4:07am, 20 Oct 2022

Discussions over a big potential gas price measure against Russia is top of the domestic political agenda in Brussels. However, the European Council summit this week might also be remembered for significantly hardening the European Union’s foreign policy position towards China.

Relations between Brussels and Beijing have frayed since 2020, and this week’s summit could move closer to formalising that shift. This development bodes ill for bilateral relations, including the long-negotiated Comprehensive Agreement on Investment whose ratification is frozen in Brussels.

The EU could stick to a three-part assessment of China as partner, competitor and systemic rival, despite this being potentially outdated. However, the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic body, has advised member states in a new document that the “competitor” piece should increasingly be the focus of bilateral relations as Beijing becomes “an even stronger global competitor for the EU, the United States and other like-minded partners”.

This is key, it says, because “China is not going to change” and is “moving to a logic of all-out competition, economically but also politically”. The intervention comes with the claim that “current and foreseeable challenges”, such as human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Beijing’s position on Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of Hong Kong’s national security law, are only likely to “widen the divergence between China’s and our own political choices and positions”.

It also advises the bloc to enhance ties with other Asia-Pacific powers including Japan, India and Australia, diversify supply chains and “intensify efforts to reduce vulnerabilities” in areas including fighting disinformation, cyber, maritime and space security, and innovation and technology. These would build on existing measures, including the new strategy “A Globally Connected Europe”, which is seen as a competitor to China’s Belt and Road Initiative pushing for investments in visible projects to link the EU to the wider world.

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The initial response from Europe’s foreign policy elite has been favourable, with Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra saying, “There is increasing realism in the dialogue with China. We are leaving naivety behind.” Meanwhile, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said, “A new discussion on China, with a new analysis, is very timely.”