China competition eclipses all other EU relations with Beijing, top diplomat Josep Borrell says
- EU foreign affairs chief makes comments after European Union ministers discuss a paper by the bloc’s foreign service
- Paper advises EU to stand up to Beijing’s efforts to ‘systematically promote an alternative world order’ in which human rights are secondary to national sovereignty
As relations with Beijing continue to cool, the European Union’s top diplomat says the bloc now views economic and political competition with China as having eclipsed all other aspects of bilateral ties.
Speaking after the EU’s 27 foreign ministers met in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss China for the first time this year, its foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said that growing competition was outstripping the partnership and “systemic rivalry” elements of the relationship that Brussels policy had codified in 2019.
“The message from China is now one of competing: competing on a political level, their economic success, their desire to have influence at all sorts of levels, their presence in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America and elsewhere,” Borrell said.
While the EU remains committed to its 2019 three-pronged approach to China, the space for partnership has been squeezed in the past two years.
In Brussels and other European capitals, the mood on China has soured since the beginning of the pandemic amid anger about Beijing’s pugnacious “wolf warrior” diplomacy and concerns over human rights abuses in China resulting in tit-for-tat sanctions.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the problems caused by European dependency on Russian products have further focused attention on what some EU leaders consider an over-reliance on China for critical products.
