The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has accused China of exploiting the weakness of President Vladimir Putin to maximize its geopolitical influence over Russia. She has warned that China's role in the Ukraine war will be a "determining factor" in defining the engagement between Brussels and Beijing.
Speaking critically about China's recent high-profile visit of President Xi Jinping to Moscow and the country's 12-point "peace plan" for Ukraine, von der Leyen said that China is becoming "more repressive at home and more assertive abroad," and is structuring its entire economy and society around the absolute control of the ruling Communist Party. She also accused China of violating human rights, toughening its military standing, and ramping up disinformation and coercion campaigns around the world.
Von der Leyen has warned that China's explicit fusion of its military and commercial sectors could have potential implications for the transfer of sensitive technologies and intellectual property and suggested that her executive would propose a new instrument to screen certain types of investment. She also called for the reassessment of the EU-China agreement concluded in late 2020, which was later frozen.
However, despite the recent turn for the worse in EU-China relations, von der Leyen said that the bloc simply could not afford a clean-cut breakup with China. She called for de-risking rather than decoupling and mentioned climate change and biodiversity protection as two areas where the EU and China can find common ground to tackle global challenges.
The president also made the case for slashing European dependency on China, particularly in the sectors of green technology and raw materials, whose demand is set to skyrocket as the bloc moves towards climate neutrality at a greater speed in the wake of Russia's war. She urged member states to avoid falling for "divide-and-conquer tactics" and emphasized the need for a collective response to the defining moment in global affairs.
In summary, Ursula von der Leyen's speech paints a sobering picture of the current state of EU-China relations, highlighting China's growing assertiveness and repressive actions at home and abroad. While acknowledging the need to focus on de-risking rather than decoupling, she also calls for the reassessment of the EU-China agreement, the rebalancing of the relationship on the basis of transparency, predictability, and reciprocity, and the slashing of European dependency on China.
