Europe needs a final phase in its China policy – ​​POLITICO

The move to a more cautious stance is welcome. But policymaking has been reactive and decentralized in recent years, as authorities have made a series of rapid U-turns on everything from Chinese investment to Chinese students. And given the scale of the global challenge posed by Mr. Xi and the Chinese Communist Party, European governments need to do more than play whack-a-mole, responding to Beijing’s threats on a case-by-case basis.

Rather, there is an urgent need to think more deeply about the ultimate goals of Europe’s China policy and the extent to which these goals are shared across the continent, as well as with the United States and other allies.

For example, the United States is driven by competition with China for its own sake. But European governments haven’t been superpowers for a long time, so they don’t see China as an existential threat to their global standing.

Furthermore, the US presidential election in November is sure to be a focus of attention. If former President Donald Trump wins, European governments will likely have to protect themselves from his capricious and highly transactional approach and pursue foreign policies more independent of the United States. And if current President Joe Biden is re-elected, Europe will likely face further pressure from his administration to further strengthen its China policy in line with the White House.

To foster debate about these convergent and divergent aspects of transatlantic China policy, I collaborated with colleagues at Chatham House and the Royal United Services Institute to develop a series of publications for policymakers in Europe and the United States. A workshop was held. And here’s what we discovered.

In these discussions, both Europeans and Americans wanted to preserve the status quo in Asia, and there was broad agreement on security-related objectives. That means keeping the South China Sea open to all, maintaining Taiwan’s de facto independence, and strengthening deterrence against possible future Chinese aggression.