The Debate | Diplomacy | East Asia
EU leaders have an opportunity to stop treating repression as a side issue and instead make human rights more central to their engagement with China.
At the European Council on June 19, EU leaders gave the European Commission a clear mandate to develop additional trade defense instruments to protect its markets against subsidized imports. At the Franco-German Ministerial Council on July 16-17, for the first time after years of division on the issue, France and Germany jointly identified China as “challenging our economy” and called for the establishment of an EU roadmap to protect European industries against Chinese competition.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker summarized it all: “The EU needs to have a strategic reorientation.”
Europe’s responses to Beijing’s long-term industrial planning has deepened Europe’s dependence on its trade with China with a focus on matters like subsidies or overcapacity, market distortions, and unfair competition. However, any shift in Europe’s approach to China needs to elevate human rights.
