Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) EU leaders stressed the importance of reconsidering the bloc’s stance towards China and warned against economic dependence on the country.
Noting that dependence on Russia backfired, many EU officials called for a tougher united stance on Beijing, according to Reuters reporting on Friday.
The EU officially declared China in 2019 an economic partner and competitor as well as systemic rival. Josep Borrell, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, recently warned in a paper that the bloc should regard China as a competitor who is promoting “an alternative vision of world order.”
The call for rethinking EU’s stance towards Beijing comes as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is planning a trip to China with a business delegation and the ruling coalition in Germany is at odds over plans to sell a stake in the Port of Hamburg to Chinese shipping group COSCO.
Scholz previously came under pressure from other EU member states over his opposition to a planned price cap coupled with Germany’s aid measures worth nearly 200 billion euro aimed at cushioning the blow of soaring energy prices on the citizens and companies.
Speaking on Friday, Scholz stressed that COSCO is looking to buy a minority stake in the Port of Hamburg, rather than become majority owner.
He is to visit China at the start of next month and, when asked why he was taking a business delegation, pointed out that German business delegations always go on such trips.
Cooperation between democracies
Commenting on China, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin noted that EU leaders did not discuss the Port of Hamburg, but stressed that EU member states should not sell their critical infrastructure to authoritarian regimes.
She added that the EU should strengthen cooperation with democratic countries and concluded that it should avoid dependencies in the future.
Emmanuel Macron, President of France, reminded that the EU previously made “strategic errors” when it comes to sale of critical infrastructure to China.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that the EU learned from its dependency on Russian energy imports and stressed the importance of not making the same mistake with China.
“In the case of China, it is the risk of dependency on technologies and raw materials,” she pointed out and added that the bloc should turn towards trustworthy suppliers.
