On December 30, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU Council President Charles Michel and the rotating EU presidency – German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron held remote video talks. (Reuters)
The European Union and China jointly announced on Wednesday (30) the conclusion in principle of a Europe-China Investment Agreement. China pledged to provide an unprecedented level of market access, increased transparency and fair competition to EU investors, as well as to work towards ratification of the convention on forced labor. But the EU, which facilitated the negotiations, has been criticized by some politicians and scholars for focusing on short-term interests and for giving Xi Jinping a “gift” because of the lack of substance in the agreement on Xinjiang and other human rights issues.
EU leaders held video talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday. After the meeting, an announcement from the European Commission said China promised “unprecedented levels” of market access for EU investors, including some important new market opening opportunities.
At present, the EU-China Investment Agreement has only been negotiated in principle and is still a long way from being signed. In addition, EU leaders have raised the issue of human rights in Hong Kong and China during the negotiations, but the lack of substance in the Agreement on China’s human rights violations, including the Xinjiang concentration camps and forced labor, has raised concerns among some politicians and academics.
Zhang Lun, a professor at the University of Cergy-Pontoise in France, told the station that Beijing is currently facing an international political quagmire and its current commitments to Europe are nothing more than a strategy for Xi Jinping to get out of the international quagmire. Given that Beijing never keeps its international commitments, the EU is likely to be disappointed and even harm the interests of Europeans.
The Communist Party will survive in death, and they will make adjustments when it matters,” Zhang Lun said. Given past experience, Beijing will not deliver! If Europe is not vigilant and does not follow up with some substantial mechanisms, it will eventually be disappointed and the Europeans will have to pay a huge price for it in the future.
Zhang Lun also believes that Europe is not to blame for considering its own political and economic interests. But the timing of the final negotiations on the EU-China Investment Agreement is clearly unethical in light of the Chinese Communist Party’s handling of the Wuhan pneumonia virus outbreak and its crackdown on human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
Nor do we have any more right to necessarily blame Europe, but such a timing now is morally inappropriate, Zhang Lun said. This year Beijing from the handling of the epidemic, to the suppression of human rights, so sign you are not the same as giving Beijing a reward? This is real international politics, and in the current landscape, Xi Jinping is definitely scoring geopolitical points, and is letting the US see “I can do something to break the game”.
Zhang urged the European Parliament to carefully consider the pros and cons of the agreement in its next agenda, and to develop a mechanism to monitor Beijing’s delivery on its commitments. He also predicted that Beijing’s plans may not be successful, and that the political confrontation between China and Europe will not change much in the future, and that a political and economic separation is likely to occur.
Qian Yuejun, a German law scholar and former editor-in-chief of the Euromonitor, also criticized European politicians for pushing for the signing of the EU-China Investment Agreement under the impetus of some profit-oriented enterprises and politicians, wishfully believing that the Chinese Communist Party will keep its promises, when the U.S. is imposing trade sanctions on China and the “Five Eyes Alliance” and other Western countries are joining hands to counteract China, Europe wants to gain short-term benefits from the agreement, which is actually a blood transfusion for China and is tantamount to aiding and abetting the enemy.
Qian Yuejun said: The contracts that the Chinese Communist Party has ever been afraid of signing in the international community are only for the international community to see. The Chinese Communist Party is using this means to gain profits one after another, such as WTO, China-US trade, etc. The same will happen with the China-EU Investment Agreement this time. The CCP attracts EU countries to blood transfusion for China. Western political circles have been repeating their previous tragedies.
Thorsten Benner, head of the Global Public Policy Institute in Germany, said in a press interview that it is not in Europe’s interest to ignore the geopolitical rashness of the agreement, the bullying of Australia and Taiwan by China, the disdain expressed by Chinese leaders for the international agreements of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong, and the false messages sent by China to Europe, and that the agreement is a “gift” to Xi Jinping.
German Green MEP Reinhard Butikofer, head of the European Parliament’s China Relations Group, tweeted on Tuesday night (29th) that this is a “strategic mistake” made by the EU. It is “absurd” that the EU is trying to present Beijing’s commitment to labor rights as “a success”.
The bilateral video talks on Wednesday included European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU Council President Charles Michel and the EU presidency of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Mark Marx. Angela Merkel, and Emmanuel Macron, President of France. Von der Leyen stressed that the agreement is an important milestone in the value-based trade agenda of the EU and China. During the meeting, Michel also extended an invitation to Xi Jinping to attend the “Europe-China Summit” in Brussels in 2021. In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Merkel was the biggest driver of the agreement negotiations.
The EU said that the conclusion of the negotiations in principle is the first step in the agenda of the investment agreement, which will be sent to the European Commission and the European Parliament for adoption and ratification; the agreement includes a monitoring mechanism for the implementation of the obligations.
China has made important commitments in the Agreement to the EU automotive, chemicals and telecommunications sectors, as well as to the EU in cloud services, financial services, private healthcare, environmental services and air transport services. China also ensures fair treatment of EU companies so that they can compete in a better environment in China, including in the obligations of state-owned enterprises, transparency in subsidies and opposition to forced technology transfer and other market distortions. In addition to this, China has committed to work towards the ratification of the International Labor Organization (ILO) fundamental conventions on forced labor.
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