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| Wang Yi, China's Foreign Minister |
A Chinese charm offensive is now under way in Europe. While new US President Donald Trump praises the “smart” Britons for their planned exit from the European Union, Beijing is now presenting itself as a backer of European integration.
“We are hoping to see a more united, stable and flourishing Europe,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said d just days ahead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s meeting with Trump in Washington on Tuesday.
With regard to free trade, climate protection and shaping a new global order, China appears to be moving into the vacuum created by Trump’s isolationism.
If the new sheriff in the White House looks down dismissively on the European Union, then Wang Yi is the one at the current People’s Congress session in Beijing to stress the EU’s importance.
“We value Europe’s strategic position and significant role,” he says.
“While Trump talks about protectionism as a means to create new jobs in America, China wants to work with the Europeans in order to “push economic cooperation further.
“ For China is just as worried about Trump as Europe is,’’ Wang Yi said.
At the Mercator Institute for Chinese Studies (MERICS) in Berlin, Bjorn Conrad notes that “if the US government as announced takes harsh measures to restrict imports from China, this could sharply hit China’s vulnerable economy.”
He adds that both China and Germany had an “unpleasant fate” to share: “Both, as export nations, are dependent on dynamic, global trade.”
But Conrad also warns against any “naivety” about China.
“When China speaks about globalisation, then they above all mean open markets for Chinese exports and investments, not a far-reaching opening of the Chinese market,” he says.
Many observers see China playing a double game. Not only does Beijing restrict foreign companies’ access to its market, but many see China as trying behind the scenes to divide the Europeans over such troublesome issues as criticism of China’s human rights situation, the military build-up in the South China Sea and trade policy.
Eastern European states such as Hungary and the poor Mediterranean country of Greece are being put under massive pressure in order to help shape a common foreign policy that is more to China’s liking, one EU diplomat said.
“It is now practically impossible to achieve a consensus [in the EU] in the central areas of policy towards China, such as human rights and the South China Sea,” the diplomat added.
Last July, after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, the two states acted to water down a joint statement by the EU on the issue.
In the end, the EU statement did not even directly mention China by name.
Regarding human rights, Hungary recently blocked the EU from taking a position about allegations of torture in China.
As Angela Stanzel of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) think tank notes, China’s “investments in influence” are showing returns.
“Those are the countries that are receiving most of the investments from China,” the EU diplomat notes.
“There is no overlooking the connection, for example, with Hungary or Greece.”
China is especially exerting influence on the Central- and East European countries via the “16 plus 1” format, he said, referring to the body called Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries.
These are hoping for billions that would flow to Eastern Europe via the “New Silk Road” project.
At the latest 16 plus 1 summit meeting in the Latvian capital Riga in November, Premier Li Keqiang launched a fund for investments of upwards of 10 billion euros.
“We keep hearing these official acknowledgements that Beijing wants to see a strong and unified EU,” the EU diplomat said.
In fact, the Chinese have been increasingly pursuing their aims in regional formats such as the “16 plus 1” instead of talking with Brussels.
“In some cases considerable pressure is being exerted on individual member states,” the diplomat said.(dpa/NAN)
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