Silvia Amaro
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It is a make-or-break moment for China\u2019s relationship with the European Union, as the bloc\u2019s trade chief asks for more openness and fairness from Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe stand at a crossroads. We can choose a path towards mutually beneficial relations. One which is based on open, fair trade and investment, and working hand in hand on the great challenges of our time,\u201d Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice president of the European Commission, said at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOr we can choose a path that slowly moves us apart. Where the shared benefits we enjoyed in recent decades weaken, and fade. And, as a result, where our people and economies face reduced opportunities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is some of the sharpest wording to come from European officials and follows data that showed the EU logging a trade deficit of almost 400 billion euros with China in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLast year, the EU registered record bilateral trade with China of 865 billion euros ($921 billion). But this is very unbalanced, because the EU has a trade deficit of almost 400 billion euros,\u201d Dombrovskis said Saturday before an audience in Shanghai, where he began his four-day trip to China late last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The visit, which was a while in the making, coincidentally came less than two weeks after the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, opened an investigation into Chinese subsidies<\/a> to electric car manufacturers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the EU argues that Chinese support to EVs is creating distortions in the European market, Beijing authorities criticize what they described as \u201cprotectionist\u201d views from Brussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dombrovskis is using the trip to explain to his Chinese counterparts that the probe aims to create fairer trading practices, and that the EU does not plan to cut ties with Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent months, the EU has put more and more emphasis on the idea of de-risking from China<\/a> \u2014 a concept that tries to bridge the gap between a more aggressive U.S. decoupling and the EU\u2019s awareness that China is a critical trading partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDe-risk<\/a>. This means minimising our strategic dependencies for a select number of strategic products. Acting in a proportionate and targeted way to maintain our open strategic autonomy,\u201d Dombrovskis clarified in a speech in Shanghai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n European officials have stressed their plan is not to decouple from China and have looked to influence the United States to take the same approach.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a joint statement of the Group of Seven, the world\u2019s seven largest economies, the U.S. agreed there is a need to de-risk from Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>De-risking, not decoupling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n