From the United States to Europe, as well as Asia and Australia, China’s ongoing challenges to the international order are being opposed and resisted by a growing number of countries.
In London on Wednesday (May 5, 2021), G7 foreign ministers called on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and condemned “human rights violations and abuses” in Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as China’s “arbitrary and coercive economic policies”. On Tuesday, European Union trade officials said they would suspend work on approving the China-EU investment deal; also on Tuesday, India released a list of network equipment suppliers participating in 5G trials, with Huawei and ZTE not included; and a day earlier, Australia said it was reviewing a Chinese company’s controversial lease on the port of Darwin.
Analysts say European countries are no longer “naive” and are slowly becoming aware of the threat of China, especially to the rules-based international order. For Europe, the rules-based international order is a tool to guarantee its prosperity and security.
“G-7 Foreign Ministers Unanimously Condemn China, Germany, Italy, France Growing Tougher
G-7 foreign ministers on Wednesday called on China to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms” after their first face-to-face meeting in two years.
We call on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with its obligations under international and domestic law,” the foreign ministers said in a joint statement after their meeting.
China was one of the main topics of the G-7 foreign ministers’ meeting. Officials from the seven countries spent about 90 minutes Tuesday discussing how China uses the Belt and Road Initiative and other economic tools to coerce other countries to do what it wants, Bloomberg said, citing diplomatic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, the foreign ministers considered a U.S. proposal to address what the White House sees as China’s economic coercion. The report cited another diplomat as saying the U.S. wants to establish a consultative mechanism involving the G-7 and other stakeholders to ensure a coordinated response to China’s moves and thereby increase the G-7’s resilience.
The G-7 foreign ministers’ meeting comes at a time when Germany, Italy and France are hardening their policies toward China and moving closer to the U.S. position on China. The Biden administration sees China as the biggest challenge to the United States. In a recent interview with the media, Secretary of State Blinken said that the Chinese government is becoming increasingly repressive internally and aggressive externally, and that the United States must stand up for the international rules based on order.
The new Italian government, which came to power in February, has also become increasingly assertive toward China. The Italian government blocked a Chinese acquisition of an Italian semiconductor company in April. In addition, Italy has also built “fences and walls” against Chinese acquisitions in the semiconductor, automotive and steel industries.
German Foreign Minister Thomas called on the West in March to work together to counter China and Russia. He said that changes in the international situation have made the West face increasingly serious challenges, and that the level playing field no longer exists and is moving toward confrontation. The media predict that Merkel’s successor is likely to take a tougher line against China when she leaves office in September.
China’s relations with France are also somewhat strained. In March, the Chinese embassy in France accused a French researcher of being a “hooligan” and a “spewer” for criticizing China’s policy toward Taiwan. Beijing’s actions drew strong international criticism, and Chinese Ambassador Lu Shano was summoned to France.
Europe is waking up
Nicolas Regaud, a senior researcher at the French Military Academy’s Institute for Strategic Studies, told a seminar Wednesday at the Project 2049 Institute, a U.S. think tank, on how Europe and the United States can work together to deal with China, that Europeans are realizing that the Chinese threat is not just confined to the Asia-Pacific region, but is also It is also encroaching on the European continent. He said European countries have converging interests with the Biden administration in maintaining a rules-based international order.
Europe has a very unique political structure that is fragile in many ways and faces both internal and external challenges,” he said. Multilateralism and the international system are fundamental tools to guarantee Europe’s security and prosperity, and are the driving force behind Europe’s ability to maintain its economic, scientific, technological and innovative as well as military strength. Europe is not a feudal state, nor is it an empire; it symbolizes the rule of law.”
President Biden has said since the day he ran for office that he would place multilateralism and increased cooperation with allies and partners at the center of his foreign policy. That’s a departure from former President Trump’s perceived one-man approach. Trump’s unilateralist foreign policy has largely contributed to the differences between Europe and the United States over the past four years, Rego said.
Europe’s wariness of China is not new: In March 2019, a European Commission document called China a “systemic competitor” for the first time while recognizing it as a partner. France, Germany and the United Kingdom have subsequently stepped up their scrutiny of foreign (Chinese) investment and mergers. Many European companies were targeted for takeovers after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, as their stocks fell. European officials have even increased their efforts to protect their assets.
Rego of the French Military Academy said that for European powers such as the UK, France and Germany, in addition to their concerns about China’s practices on the European continent, China’s practices in the East and South China Seas, for example, using non-peaceful means to settle disputes, not respecting agreements and violating the principle of free navigation, directly affect their interests in the Asia-Pacific region.
The UK, France and Germany have recently announced that they are sending ships through the South China Sea to exercise their right to freedom of navigation.
EU Suspends Work on Ratification of China-EU Investment Agreement
The EU’s biggest recent top-back move against China may be the suspension of work to ratify the China-EU investment agreement. At the end of December last year, with a final push from Germany, the EU and China rushed to sign the China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement (CIA) before the Biden administration took office. The signing of the agreement was seen by China as an important diplomatic victory to break through the U.S. siege.
Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice president and trade commissioner of the European Commission, said in an interview with AFP on Tuesday (May 4), “We have now in a sense suspended…political outreach from the European Commission side. “
He said, “Obviously, given that the EU currently imposes sanctions on China and China imposes counter-sanctions including against members of the European Parliament, such an environment is not conducive to the ratification of the agreement.”
On March 22, the EU joined forces with the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada to impose sanctions on Chinese Communist Party officials and entities over the regime’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang Uyghur. The CCP quickly responded by announcing sanctions against 10 individuals in Europe including European parliamentarians, academics and four entities, including the European parliamentarians who were to vote on the China-EU investment agreement. The Chinese Communist Party’s approach caused an uproar in Europe, prompting at least eight European countries to summon Chinese ambassadors in their countries.
Dombrovskis also told AFP that efforts to ratify the agreement “will actually depend on how the broader Europe-China relationship will evolve.
Following Beijing’s announcement of sanctions against several EU individuals and entities, several politicians in the European Parliament have said that the China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement (CAI) must be vetoed and left “dead in the water”.
In addition, the EU is also taking action to reduce its dependence on China in key areas. Reuters reports that the EU’s industrial action plan, to be published this week, aims to reduce dependence on China and other foreign suppliers in six strategic areas, including raw materials, APIs, semiconductors, batteries, hydrogen energy and leading technologies such as cloud computing.
Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, has told Voice of America that continuing to increase commercial cooperation with China would send the wrong signal and prove that human rights and international law are not important to the EU.
He said, “Beijing is not making enough changes on key issues of concern to the EU, and Beijing has repeatedly proven to be a constant violator of human rights and international law.”
Europe’s Indo-Pacific Strategy
In addition to this, the EU has decided to strengthen its influence in the Indo-Pacific region. on April 19, the EU Council issued the Indo-Pacific Regional Cooperation Strategy Resolution, which aims to ensure “regional stability, security, prosperity and sustainable development” at a time of regional turmoil.
The resolution said the EU seeks to establish a rules-based international order, a level playing field, an open and fair trade and investment environment, strengthen resilience and combat climate change. The resolution also expressed the need to adhere to the international law of free and open sea navigation routes, and will continue to develop cooperation on security and defense issues. The resolution calls on the 27 member states to work with partners in the Indo-Pacific region to address these issues of common concern.
The resolution did not mention China, and EU diplomats stressed that the resolution was not aimed at China. However, many aspects of the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy are similar to U.S. policies in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in the areas of free navigation, security and trade diversification.
Harsh Pant, a professor of international relations at King’s College London, said in an interview with Voice of America that the EU is launching the Indo-Pacific strategy because it must respond to the changing status quo in the Indo-Pacific region. “Everyone who talks about the Indo-Pacific has to talk about China, that’s the reality,” he said.
France, Germany and the Netherlands have previously developed programs to deepen relations with countries such as India, Japan and Australia.
In addition to the chilly relations with Western European countries, China’s efforts to draw in Central and Eastern European countries have also been thwarted. on Feb. 9, China held a video summit with Central and Eastern European countries. Despite the personal presence of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the leaders of the Baltic states of Lithuania and Estonia, along with Romania, decided to turn back China’s invitation and send lower-ranking officials to the meeting.
Luke Patey, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, has written a book about the world’s boycott of China, “How China Failed and the World Topped Back China’s Global Ambitions”. I think other major countries, as well as developing countries, realize that engaging with China in trade, investment, finance and technology does bring benefits, but it also threatens a country’s long-term competitiveness and even their foreign and defense policy autonomy,” he said recently at the book’s launch.
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