Home » World » Diplomacy in a triangle: EU, USA, China

Diplomacy in a triangle: EU, USA, China

For EU-China relations, 2020 ended on a positive note. After nearly seven years of negotiations, both sides reached an agreement that makes it easier for companies to operate on the other side. But the future Biden administration in Washington has already expressed itself negatively. Biden wants a coordinated China policy with Europe.

And there is already considerable resistance to the EU-China deal. In the European Parliament, MEPs threaten to say no, as the agreement does not do enough to stop human rights violations. It is also said that the agreement threatens transatlantic cooperation.

The EU-China investment agreement was not exactly helpful if one wanted to improve relations between Europe and the United States on matters relating to China after Trump, says the German Green Reinhard Bütikofer, chairman of the European Parliament’s China delegation. Biden wanted consultations, but Brussels gave him the cold shoulder.

But experts say Biden wants less confrontation with China. According to Jonas Parello-Plesner of the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, the Biden government is trying to get off to a fresh start and prefer a foreign policy that first and foremost relies on coordination with the allies. Of course, this primarily refers to the partners in Europe. In the end, Washington and Brussels wanted to form a common front against the authoritarian regime in Beijing.

China doesn’t exactly have a reputation for literally sticking to agreements once it is signed. Therefore, the EU and the US should work together from a position of strength, says Parello-Plesner.

The big question is whether China can be trusted right now. Hong Kong is being pushed around by Beijing even though the agreement with the British stipulates that the system in the former crown colony should be left intact until 2047, says Parello-Plesner. Australia is also treated rudely by China – despite a trade agreement between the two sides. Now the new government administration offers the hope that in future agreements with China will be discussed and coordinated between the allies, between the USA and Europe.

Meanwhile, the EU and China are working on fine-tuning the text of their investment agreement. The European Council and the European Parliament must then agree to this. In view of the resistance on both sides of the Atlantic, it remains to be seen whether this will happen.

This only underscores the difficulty of dealing with an economic rival that is also a lucrative market.

– .

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.