The foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states recently agreed at a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council to respond to the Chinese government’s suppression of Hong Kong with a “two-step framework” and other measures. The EU is widely seen as moving closer to the tougher stance of the United States in its approach to China, but some experts say it is not enough.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Feb. 21 that Hong Kong, Russia and Iran have been at the top of the council’s agenda. He said that the situation in Hong Kong “continues to deteriorate” and that the EU will adopt a “two-step framework” and a series of short- and long-term measures to respond to the Chinese government’s efforts to suppress Hong Kong’s freedoms, in addition to the measures adopted by the EU when the national security law was introduced in Hong Kong in July last year. The EU will adopt a “two-step framework” and a series of short-term and long-term measures to respond to the Chinese government’s actions to suppress Hong Kong’s freedom.
EU Sets Aside Internal Differences, Unanimously Tough on China
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Feb. 21 that Hong Kong, Russia and Iran have been at the top of the EU Foreign Affairs Council’s agenda.
In July 2020, the EU unanimously agreed to a series of countermeasures in response to the entry into force of the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law, including further review and restriction of any equipment and technology exports to Hong Kong that could be used for internal repression, interception of communications or cyber surveillance.
“Immediate measures include increased support for Hong Kong civic groups, enhanced coordination with pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong, and liaison with relevant authorities,” Borrell said at the meeting. “The EU agrees to take action if the situation in Hong Kong deteriorates further, for example through radical reforms of Hong Kong’s electoral process or a further erosion of judicial independence.” However, Borrell did not specify what specific measures the EU would take next.
The Wall Street Journal reported that last week a confidential document was circulated among EU member states outlining the measures the EU would take in the future in response to the Hong Kong issue. The document recommends that the EU and Hong Kong citizens’ groups jointly establish a consultation platform to “coordinate the EU’s response to the situation in Hong Kong. At the same Time, the EU should coordinate dialogue between Beijing and Hong Kong with other democratic countries such as the United States, ease visa restrictions for Hong Kong citizens to immigrate to Europe, suspend EU-wide extradition agreements with Hong Kong, and send a special representative for human rights to Hong Kong.
The EU has been criticized by the international community for the preliminary signing of the Comprehensive Investment Agreement with China at the end of last year. In response, Borrell said, “I think the discussion of Hong Kong and the signing of the Comprehensive Investment Agreement are compatible. Signing the agreement does not prevent us from continuing to express to China our concerns about human rights and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and elsewhere.”
Christina Lin, a fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University, sees this as an indication of a shift in the EU’s attitude and policy toward China in a change from a neutral position: “Traditionally, the EU has looked at China from an economic perspective, while the U.S. has looked at it from a security perspective. But in the past few years, the shift from a soft diplomatic stance to a ‘war-wolf’ posture by the Chinese Communist Party has caused the EU to shift its stance toward China, and China to lose trust in the EU.”
Expert: China-EU Investment Agreement Won’t Hinder US-EU Cooperation Against China
Daniel S. Hamilton, director of the Global Europe Initiative at the Wilson Center, a U.S. think tank, told the station that it remains to be seen whether the China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement will ultimately be implemented. He argued that the signing of the agreement will not affect the strengthening of the transatlantic alliance between the U.S. and the EU to jointly address the Chinese challenge: “The deal was driven in large part by the German presidency of the EU at the time, but the agreement must be approved by EU member states and the European Parliament, and at least 400 parliamentarians are currently opposed to it, so it is likely that the agreement will probably not be finally implemented.”
EU internal divisions remain
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell mentioned at the EU Foreign Affairs Council’s council Feb. 21 that Hong Kong, along with Russia and Iran, has been at the top of the EU Foreign Affairs Council’s agenda.
Hamilton said that although the EU is interested in cooperating with the US on China within the framework of the transatlantic alliance, each member state has its own interests: “The EU has three main areas of concern when formulating its policy towards China: international cooperation on climate change, etc., competition in commerce and trade, and challenging Western norms of behavior and international order. There are many internal differences among EU member states on how to prioritize and how each country should make trade-offs. Germany, for example, is prioritizing its commercial relations with China, while remaining relatively silent on the Communist Party’s human rights abuses.”
Peter Rough, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, argues that in addition to the wider divisions within the EU on China Policy, differences between the U.S. and the EU are also evident. Rough believes that the biggest challenge to transatlantic alliance cooperation on China is that some member states are not willing to support a new, untested U.S. policy toward China: “Germany and France have reservations about following the U.S. in maintaining a tough stance toward China, but Britain is willing to take a tougher approach. German public opinion is sensitive to human rights issues, but economic interests seem to prevail overwhelmingly. The EU, driven by Germany, will ultimately be inclined to cooperate with the United States in a limited number of specific areas without compromising economic cooperation with China.”
Raff believes that the CIA does make it more challenging than expected for the Biden administration to develop a transatlantic China strategy. But he said, “I don’t think it means that the EU and the U.S. can’t cooperate more. At the very least, in the area of cutting-edge technology, the U.S. and Europe can increase cooperation to jointly protect intellectual property rights.”
Raff warned that the EU currently tends to divide the areas of cooperation and competition with China, but that the Chinese Communist Party will not allow the EU to remain neutral in the international community. Once Beijing holds political competition hostage with economic and trade cooperation, the EU will not be able to gain a foothold.
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