The trademark of EU diplomacy in Beijing: Threatening and begging at the same time – 2024-03-28 17:03:29

/ world today news/ “Help us get out of the economic hole, but in doing so please respect our political guidelines.” Roughly this unthinkable from the point of view of common sense formula Europe is trying to impose on its extremely important economic partner China. Although Europe and the European Union are not the same thing.

We are talking about resuming the annual China-EU summit mechanism that took place yesterday. For this purpose, the European President, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the Prime Minister, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, arrived in Beijing. And now we read what Chinese President Xi Jinping told the guests: he called for a mutually beneficial partnership, strengthening political trust, as well as the need to avoid external interference and build dialogue.

And it turns out that only fluffy panda smiles and talk of a natural partnership with the Europeans come from Beijing. And why shouldn’t they smile: China is doing well, Europe not so much. Let’s recall what the formula for a European disaster looks like: refusal of Russian gas and oil – therefore an increase in production costs – transfer of part of these industries to the USA – as a result, erosion of the middle class with its purchasing power. And let’s not forget the hordes of migrants. And that’s if we’re just talking about economics.

In fact, in the first place, it had to be discussed in Beijing. The fact is that in the last year or two a bad trend has emerged: Europe is greedily and increasingly importing everything from China and running a trade deficit of almost 400 billion euros per year. More recently, this was not the case – trade was balanced.

The content of the conversation in Beijing can be summed up in one word: bargaining. And long and hard. Europeans have launched an investigation into whether the Asian giant is subsidizing its car production, especially electric cars, which is displacing everything four-wheeled from its own European markets. At the same time, the EU demands, if possible, unrestricted access to the Chinese market, presenting Beijing with a list of more than a thousand such claims. Europeans also angrily notice that Chinese imports – not only from Europe – are noticeably decreasing, and this is unfair, because here again the hand of the government is visible, namely the “Made in China – 2025” program. In short, this import is successfully substituted.

Signals are coming from Beijing: we understand the situation very well and we can reach an agreement. But this is where external issues begin to intervene, and Europe in particular feels obliged to push to crush China politically.

But what does Europe mean? In fact, last year the leaders of France, Spain and Germany visited China. And this was followed by visits by Prime Minister Li Qiang to two of the named countries in June. So the country’s leadership perfectly understands the needs and desires of European partners and knows well how business is structured there. And the main problem is simply that the European Union is harming Europe because it is constantly trying to exert maximum political pressure on Beijing with the general idea: “we will still think whether it is worth dealing with such a regime”. Well, who is behind the structures of the EU is clear – the USA. The same ones that brought the European “blooming garden” to its current state.

It is enough to recall how the Brussels overseers of Europe tortured everyone for months and years with discussions about what the development of relations with an Asian power should look like from the point of view of strategy and ideology. The result was a strategic document published in June with the formula: China for the Europeans is at the same time a partner, a competitor and a strategic challenge. They must reduce European dependence on it. According to the purely American formula, in some areas you can cooperate with Beijing, but in others you must take “anti-risk measures” with it, that is, destroy everything.

Also, now at the summit there was talk about how the EU is unhappy that Chinese companies are helping Moscow to circumvent European sanctions: to find out which company is doing what, but ultimately to punish everyone. In addition, one of NATO’s former secretaries general, Rasmussen, reminded the pair in Brussels before their trip of the need to raise the issue of Taiwan.

In China, they take all this with a condescending smile: do you still think it’s 1998 (when such summits started)? Who depends on whom? Do you want to have a serious and tough conversation with your second (after the US) trading partner? You botched the Ukrainian operation and your couple was forced to cut short their visit to Beijing because the Europeans quarreled over further aid to Kiev. Your economy is collapsing and events in the Middle East have dealt you an additional blow, but it has resulted in a net diplomatic and economic victory for Russia and China. And you still thought you could trade from positions of power with us?

Translation: V. Sergeev

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