James F. Downes

Opinion | EU’s China policy needs a revamp, but there’s no one-size-fits all solution

Policy divisions among EU institutions as well as member states, and intensifying US-China rivalry, complicate the bloc’s China policy

The EU must get agreement on a unified China strategy among its member states, focusing on economics and trade, but avoid systemic decoupling and steer clear of politics

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (centre) meets with French President Emmanuel Macron (left) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Beijing on April 6. Photo: EU Commission / DPA

James F. Downes

Published: 10:30pm, 17 Aug 2023Updated: 11:16pm, 17 Aug 2023

The European Union’s current China strategy is not working well. The main bumps in the road arguably lie at the EU’s own door. The EU has 27 member states, with many of them holding different positions towards China.

The EU’s complex multilevel governance structure often makes it difficult for the bloc’s institutions and member states to achieve a policy consensus on key issues, alongside being effective in areas related to global governance on the international stage. These same structural problems shed light on why the EU’s China policy is not currently working.

The first main bump in the road for the EU’s China policy is the fact that the EU has often had to issue multiple directives and new policies. One effect of this has been to cause confusion among different EU member states.

Most troubling is the EU’s Global Gateway programme. This flagship policy was launched in late 2021 and has been seen as a direct policy response of the EU to the economic threat posed by China’s Belt and Road Initiative. However, it is not clear how economically significant the EU’s programme is, particularly as there has been little mention of it over the last year in official EU policy speeches.

Furthermore, the economic funding of the plan is uncertain. It is also still not clear where the full funding will come from and to what extent the Global Gateway can rival the economic dominance of the Belt and Road Initiative.

There have also been policy divisions within the EU. There are clear differences between the different parties on the EU’s China policy, such as over the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, stalled since 2021.