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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

RCEP a ‘wake-up call’ for Europe and the US to unite against China

  • Leader of European Parliament’s largest party says reunification of so-called Western world needed now
  • Manfred Weber also blasts Beijing as an ‘enemy’ to EU ideas about what society should look like based on developments in Hong Kong

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A senior European lawmaker has called for the EU and US to join forces against China. Photo: Reuters
Stuart Lau
The European Union and the US should see the new Asia-Pacific trade pact as a “wake-up call” for joint action against the growing influence of China, according to a senior EU lawmaker.
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Manfred Weber, group leader of the European People’s Party – the biggest in the European Parliament – also warned Beijing could expect further restrictive measures if a comprehensive investment treaty was not agreed with the EU by the end of this year.

“If we look at the new China Pacific trade agreement, the RCEP, Europe and the US should see this as a wake-up call to join forces,” he told the South China Morning Post.

“We need a reunification of the so-called Western world, now with Joe Biden as a constructive partner, to face this challenge of China. It’s the key question for the upcoming decade,” he said.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed by China and 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, just days after Biden won the US presidential election. The pact creates the world’s biggest free-trade area and weakens US influence in the region.

03:29

RCEP: 15 Asia-Pacific countries sign world’s largest free-trade deal

RCEP: 15 Asia-Pacific countries sign world’s largest free-trade deal

Weber also blasted the continuing crackdown in Hong Kong, where opposition lawmakers quit en masse last week over a Beijing decree which stripped their elected colleagues of their seats in the legislature.

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