The European Union’s top diplomat called for the bloc to resist pressure to “pick a side” between China and the United States.
“Our relations with China are unavoidably complex and multi-faceted,” EU high representative for foreign affairs Josep Borrell wrote in a blog post Sunday. “The words ‘systemic rival’ have drawn a lot of attention, maybe more for the ‘rival’ than the ‘systemic’ part of the expression. But it doesn’t mean that we are embarking in a systematic rivalry.”
Borrell’s statement, an apparent effort to soften the EU’s designation of China last year as a “systemic rival,” drew criticism from some China analysts in Europe. “The whole statement is music to the ears of the Chinese leadership,” wrote Institut Montaigne’s Mathieu Duchatel, a Northeast Asia expert at the Paris-based think tank.
“The EU does not want to appear to be herded by the United States,” retired Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove said.
Borrell leads the EU’s diplomatic corps, which tries to develop positions that every country in the EU can agree upon. In practice, that makes him an influential figure within the EU’s foreign policy discussions, although his office ultimately is beholden to the national governments that comprise the EU.
Borrell Monday said he told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that American and European officials need to have an extensive discussion about how to manage China’s “assertiveness.”
Borrell spoke to reporters Monday after a video conference with Pompeo and top diplomats from each EU member-state.
“We exchanged views on China and its growing assertiveness on many fronts,” he said. “There are issues that we face together in the relationship with China and where our close cooperation is very important to address them jointly.”
Such cooperation has been hard to forge in recent years, as Pompeo and other U.S. officials have met with limited success in trying to turn Washington’s bipartisan suspicion about the communist power into a transatlantic consensus. Pompeo has struggled to convince national governments to bar China’s tech company Huawei from its next-generation wireless technology, while Borrell’s public diplomacy in recent months has downplayed the prospect that the EU as a whole will take a confrontational posture toward China.
It’s not certain that the dialogue Borrell proposed will take place. “It was a suggestion that I put on the table during my conclusion, but nothing more than that,” he said.
Borrell has been cautious about criticizing China publicly, a posture that sparked controversy last month in April when leaked internal emails revealed that the public version of a report on disinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic had been softened to eliminate reference to China’s lies about the origins of the virus following complaints from Beijing. Borrell denied that the edits were made pursuant to China’s complaints, but European Parliament lawmakers made clear that they didn’t believe him.
Still, some U.S. and European analysts regard that Borrell’s public statements about remaining aloof from China as an effort to maintain the EU’s reputation as an independent actor, even as allied governments move closer to President Trump’s position.
“It doesn’t mean that European Union in America will not cooperate, of course, as closest allies,” a Central European official said, indicating that Borrell was probably under pressure to show some independence from Washington. “Once he said that, I think everybody can return back to normal and discuss all these nuances behind closed doors,” the diplomat said.
Trump’s public disputes with European leaders increase the domestic pressure in Europe to make statements that keep the administration at arm’s length, this official added. “There is a big push in Europe to say that we are independent, especially when, publicly, like Germany is being bashed,” the official said. “There’s a demand from constituents.”
Breedlove offered a similar assessment. “Everyone’s trying to position themselves to both internal and external audiences as having an independent voice out there and not being herded by anybody else,” he said.
Borrell allowed that the U.S. and European allies need to get on the same page, independence notwithstanding.
“On the issue of our dialogue with the United States focusing on China, there are broad range of issues,” he told reporters. “For us, it is important to stay together with the United States in order to share concerns and to look for common ground to defend our values and our interests.”
