2023-10-13 17:21:00
Beijing and Brussels need to regain mutual trust. She has clarified it Joseph Borrellhighest diplomatic representative of the European Unionassuming that the economy and the geopolitics They have ruined the harmony between two old civilizations and present powers on which global harmony depends. With his visit to China, both sides aspire to overcome mutual fear and align their paths despite their divergent conceptions of the world. The Middle East conflict has once again underlined them.
“Trust is capital in any human relationship and mutual trust has been eroded. We have to work to recover it because it will not return in a miraculous way,” Borrell said this Friday at Peking University. Many issues separate Europe from China but none more so than ukrainian war. The tenacious aid of the former to Ukraine contrasts with the neutrality of the latter. Borrell has admitted that China has not provided any military aid to Russia, a possibility that Washington has repeatedly raised, but has asked him to stop the conflict. “We are not asking him to adopt our position on the war but we do consider it essential that he do more to convince the people of Ukraine that he is not an ally of Russia,” he added. Brussels is as frustrated by China’s diplomatic coverage of Russia as Beijing is by European disdain for its peace plan.
China finds it difficult to decipher Borrell after alternating friendly messages with references to the disturbing new global order what do you expect. In Beijing, the first ones are recommended. The European diplomat has shown his admiration for China’s progress. An unprecedented case in history, he has riveted. “China and the EU have to work together and put differences aside. Especially in this world in which we live in which we are all more dependent but in which there are more and more conflicts (…) China does not understand why We consider a systemic rival. Most of the time it is a partner but we also compete. A peaceful rivalry is not hostile, simply implies the recognition of the differences in our respective political and economic systems. But that does not prevent us from collaborating,” he reasoned.
To the third
His visit had been canceled twice this year, first due to his positive Covid test and then due to the dismissal of Qin Gang, Foreign Minister. The Catalan politician has landed in Beijing on some delicate dates. On the one hand, in the middle of the Middle East crisis, in the face of which China has repeated Ukraine’s formula: demanding its neutrality, remembering the historical context and blaming the West for the mess. It is a blatant contrast to the staunch support of Brussels and Washington for Israel and their stubborn allusions to the “unprovoked attack” of Hamas. And, on the other, after the announced European investigation into Chinese subsidies for electric cars. Whether the EU punishes with duty to the main power of a key sector in the green transition. There is no news of investigations into the generous aid that the United States grants to the purchase of electric vehicles only if they are indigenous.
The war in Ukraine ruined China’s efforts to get closer to Europe. The macro investment agreement in which years of patient negotiations were invested was put on hold and there are no expectations of consummating it. Beijing is desperate that in Brussels those aligned with Washington’s hostility prevail over those who defend an independent European policy. Reassuring China, which presents Europe as a vassal of the United States, seems essential. “My main objective is to convince my interlocutors that Europe takes China seriously and that it lacks a hidden agenda to stop its rise. At the same time, we also hope that China will take us seriously and stop looking at us through the lens of its relationships with others. Our behavior is directed by our own interests,” Borrell proclaimed.
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It will not be easy to overcome Chinese suspicions. The press has received the diplomat with moderate optimism and clarified that the friction of the last two years could be resolved without difficulty with an honest dialogue. But an editorial in the ‘Global Times’ also recalls today that Washington’s intervention in European politics “has crossed the line and extends its influence in many aspects.”
“Many Chinese believe that European strategic autonomy is just talk and that their actions towards China follow Washington’s leadership,” the newspaper says. He lists his stances toward Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan. “And its protectionist measures on trade under the pretext of risk reduction seem like a replica of US policies,” he concludes.
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