In Beijing, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, urged President Xi Jinping to get Russia to end its war<\/a> in Ukraine, while also talking about strengthening commerce between Europe and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two visits on opposite sides of the Pacific this week highlighted different priorities on China between American and European leaders, as well as contrasts in their diplomatic approaches on two of the world\u2019s most difficult security issues, the Ukraine war and Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The United States and its European allies share similar views on many global issues, and Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has brought them closer, as they coordinate weapons aid, diplomacy and sanctions to help the Ukrainians. On China, European officials are taking an\u00a0increasingly skeptical view<\/a>, moving closer to the hard-line consensus that has formed in Washington \u2014 a \u201cmuch greater convergence,\u201d as U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in Brussels on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, there is still contentious debate in Europe over the right approach with China and over balancing security and trade issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Ukraine, President Biden and his aides have denounced China\u2019s alignment with Russia, pointing to Mr. Xi\u2019s\u00a0state visit<\/a>\u00a0to Moscow last month and the diplomatic support he has given President Vladimir V. Putin throughout the war. The Americans say China\u2019s efforts to present itself as a mediator in the war are a smoke screen for Mr. Putin to continue his slaughter, and they have said since February that China is\u00a0considering sending arms<\/a>\u00a0to Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Macron has tried a different approach, telling Mr. Xi in Beijing on Thursday, \u201cI know I can count on you to bring Russia back to its senses and everyone back to the negotiating table.\u201d Ms. von der Leyen has made harsher statements on China than Mr. Macron, but also appears willing to give Mr. Xi a chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Mr. Macron brought 50 French business executives with him to Beijing in an obvious effort to bolster commercial ties. \u201cThere\u2019s a sense there needs to be a clear European position on China that goes beyond the trans-Atlantic relationship and exists on its own merits,\u201d said Tara Varma, a visiting fellow from France on foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington. She added that \u201cthe trip was about engaging China for the first time in a very long time. It was a way to restart the conversation.\u201d Some European analysts have criticized the leaders for bringing business delegations, saying that sends the wrong message to China \u2014 particularly on its backing of Russia. Janka Oertel, the director of the Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on Twitter<\/a> that China is correct to assume that supporting Russia \u201cdoes not generally impair improved economic relations\u201d with Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She wrote that if the European leaders had traveled to Beijing this week without a business delegation, that \u201ccould have sent a surprising, strong & unmistakable message to Beijing\u201d that Ukraine was the highest priority and that there is \u201cno business as usual. Business has to wait.\u201d European leaders \u201chave not even begun\u201d to try to change Beijing\u2019s course, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last Friday, Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez of Spain met with Mr. Xi in Beijing and\u00a0urged him<\/a>\u00a0to speak with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, which Mr. Xi has avoided doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. von der Leyen has said Europe could soon take a harder line on China, including limiting trade, if China continues its aggressive actions on security and commercial issues. In a major policy speech<\/a> last week, she said the European Union might cancel a trade deal it reached with China in 2020 as part of \u201ceconomic de-risking.\u201d That would further align Europe with views in the United States, where any positive comments on the robust trade relationship with China, the world\u2019s second-largest economy, are drowned out by talk of security risks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Biden administration has pushed European governments to take more protective measures on critical technologies. In January, it got the Netherlands to commit to limiting the sales<\/a> of some semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. Some European officials have balked at those efforts, but Ms. von der Leyen agrees there must be a reassessment of Europe-China ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is clear that our relations have become more distant and more difficult in the last few years,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have seen a very deliberate hardening of China\u2019s overall strategic posture for some time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Xi\u2019s tolerance of Russian atrocities in Ukraine has shifted European attitudes. Ms. von der Leyen pointed in her speech to parting remarks that Mr. Xi made to Mr. Putin on the steps of the Kremlin last month: \u201cRight now there are changes, the likes of which we haven\u2019t seen for 100 years. And we are the ones driving these changes together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other episodes have brought European leaders closer to the American line on China. One was China imposing economic penalties on Lithuania after that nation allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in Vilnius, the capital, in 2021. Last month the European Union announced a provisional agreement to impose trade penalties on any country that tries to coerce Europe economically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside of Lithuania, the Taiwan issue<\/a> does not occupy the central role in relations with China that it does for the United States, which has a decades-long history of support for the island, including regularly sending it weapons<\/a>. In her speech, Ms. von der Leyen had a cursory mention of Taiwan. For American officials and politicians, this has become the most important topic of discussion related to China, and Mr. Biden brings it up in every call with Mr. Xi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taiwan is the biggest flashpoint<\/a> in U.S.-China relations, and American officials say a conflict over the island would result in a global crisis, with even broader consequences than Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. In Washington, there is constant debate now over Mr. Xi\u2019s intentions on Taiwan and how to deter a possible invasion<\/a> by the Chinese military. Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the news site Defense One<\/a> last week that war with China over Taiwan is not likely or imminent, and that \u201cthe rhetoric itself can overheat the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Biden has said four times<\/a> that the U.S. military would defend Taiwan if China were to attack it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawmakers from both parties are often aggressive in shows of support for Taiwan \u2014 as evidenced by Mr. McCarthy\u2019s meeting with Ms. Tsai on Wednesday in California and a\u00a0visit by his predecessor<\/a>, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan in August. Such actions on the part of European officials are rare, although they could become more common as attitudes on China change, and as U.S. officials urge Europe to get more involved. Last month, the education minister of Germany, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, became the first German cabinet official to visit Taiwan in 26 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. government has succeeded in getting a few European allies to take part in military actions and declarations on Taiwan. Both Britain and France have sent warships through the Taiwan Strait in recent years, following a regular practice of the U.S. Navy. In September, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had its first discussion<\/a> dedicated solely to Taiwan, and it has formally described China as a strategic threat. The Group of 7 nations has issued statements<\/a> since 2021 calling for preserving \u201cpeace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have been surprised at how much European countries have focused on and supported Taiwan in recent years,\u201d said Evan Medeiros, a Georgetown University professor who was a senior Asia director on the National Security Council during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Medeiros said there was a historical parallel in Europe to the Taiwan dilemma that could make the issue more salient to European officials. \u201cThe Taiwan issue has become more militarized in recent years as the P.L.A. has become more capable and now that U.S.-China is a strategic competition,\u201d he said, referring to the People\u2019s Liberation Army, the Chinese military. \u201cThe Taiwan issue is rapidly becoming what the German issue was during the Cold War.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But some American foreign policy thinkers are skeptical that European nations would give robust military support to the United States in a conflict over Taiwan, or be willing to impose harsh economic sanctions on China. Elbridge Colby, a senior Pentagon official in the Trump administration, said U.S. officials should not be surprised that the European leaders in Beijing this week were promoting commercial ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Europeans are pretty openly sending the signal that they\u2019re not willing to wage economic warfare against China,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the administration thinks Europeans would have our back in the event of a conflict, but that won\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Mr. Macron\u2019s visit to China was his first there since 2019, before the pandemic. Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany took a similar approach when he visited Beijing in November, bringing a delegation of corporate executives with him. He prodded Mr. Xi to issue a\u00a0joint statement<\/a>\u00a0opposing the use or threat of nuclear weapons over Ukraine, but the declaration failed to name Russia as the aggressor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/04\/07\/multimedia\/07dc-europe-china-wfqg\/07dc-europe-china-wfqg-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale\")
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