European Union ministers on Friday backed a strategy to reduce the bloc’s economic dependence on China, but will now have to figure out how to achieve it, EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell said.
Borrell said foreign ministers have broad support for a plan to adjust policy towards China, placing greater emphasis on its role as a political rival, while continuing to view Beijing as a partner on global issues and an economic competitor.
“Colleagues welcomed the document we presented. I agree on the main lines of this recalibration of our strategy towards China,” Borrell told reporters after the ministers’ meeting in Stockholm.
“When an addiction is very big, it’s a risk,” he said.
Borrell said the EU must learn from the “strategic mistake” it made in the years before Moscow’s war in Ukraine by becoming too dependent on Russian gas.
He said the EU is currently even more dependent on China for key technologies such as solar panels and essential materials than it is for Russian energy.
“‘De-risking’ is just a word. But behind that word is a lot of work, which will take time, to review all of our economic relations with China,” he said.
Borrell stressed that the goal is not to “separate” the European and Chinese economies, but to rebalance the relationship.
Officials will now refine the proposal to present to EU leaders, who are expected to discuss China at a summit in June.
The plan is the latest attempt to balance the views of the 27 EU member states, maintain a distinct EU approach towards Beijing and preserve close cooperation with Washington, which is pushing a harder line against of China.
The document states that coordination with the United States “will remain essential”.
But he says the EU “should not subscribe to the idea of a zero-sum game, where there can be only one winner, in a binary dispute between the US and China.”
In a letter accompanying the proposal, Borrell said there are at least three reasons to “recalibrate” Chinese policy.
According to him, these reasons are “the degree to which China is changing, with nationalism and ideology on the rise; the exacerbation of competition between the United States and China, affecting all policy areas; and the fact that China it is a major player in regional and global issues”.
The document states that the EU must “diversify sources of supply in key sectors, especially those crucial to our green and digital transitions”, such as semiconductors, 5G and 6G telecommunications, batteries, raw materials and critical minerals.
Source: Terra
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