Wednesday

31st May 2023

China under EU pressure to join 'right side of history'

Listen to article

Beijing will face EU pressure to abandon its support for Russia when Chinese leaders hold a virtual summit with top EU officials on Friday (1 April).

That was the message sent out by EU and Nato leaders meeting in Brussels last week.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"China has a choice," Latvian prime minister said at last Krišjānis Kariņš said in Brussels last Thursday.

"It is a rather simple choice: put in your lot with Russia that is waging war against Ukraine, bombing women, children and hospitals, [or] to find a way to work with Europe, with the US, and with Western democracies," he added.

China was a geopolitical giant and the EU needed to make sure "they are on the right side of history", Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin said.

"If China helps Russia, then the [EU anti-war] sanctions will not work as we want," Marin added.

"Our message to China is that they should join the rest of the world and clearly condemn the brutal war against Ukraine and not support Russia," Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg also said.

EU-China relations had already soured before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

A planned China-EU investment treaty had fallen by the wayside after the EU imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for human rights abuses.

China also stood accused of bullying Lithuania with unofficial trade sanctions because of Vilnius' ever-closer ties to Taiwan.

And China's reaction to Russia's war on Ukraine made matters worse after Beijing began spreading Russian propaganda and indicated that it might lend Moscow military and financial support in its confrontation with Western powers.

"We need calm and rationality to defuse a crisis rather than ignite the fire and add more fuel to the fire," Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said last Thursday after Nato's Stoltenberg had complained that Beijing had "provided Russia with political support by spreading lies".

"We need dialogue and communications to resume peace instead of using pressure and coercion," Wang added, in remarks that made out as though it was Nato, not Russia, that was responsible for the new geopolitical crisis.

Siding with Russia was an opportunity for China to "put the West in a difficult situation and a disadvantage", one EU diplomat said.

But, as time went by, Russia's invasion was beginning to look more and more like a military as well as a moral and diplomatic failure, in developments that ought to make Beijing think twice, Colin Kahl, a senior Pentagon official, told Reuters last week.

"What [Russian president Vladimir] Putin has done in Ukraine makes Russia much more of a strategic burden for Beijing than it was six weeks ago or six months ago," Kahlo said.

Beijing had a transactional rather than a values-oriented approach to foreign policy for some EU observers.

"They see the world differently [to Europe]. We have our own reality and they have their own reality. They are very businesslike: 'You pay and you do, and the advantage must be for us [China]'," a second EU diplomat said.

But if that was the case, then the Western unity that was galvanised by Russia's invasion should also be a factor in Beijing's calculations, EU diplomats believe.

"They must see that when it comes to protecting values, we [the West] can inflict some real damage," one of the EU diplomats said.

"It must be terrifying for them to see how united we [Western allies] are," the second EU diplomat said. "We are a big player now thanks to Mr Putin".

Western allies would find it much harder to stop Putin's war machine in Ukraine without Beijing's support.

"We need them", the EU diplomat said.

But at the same time, the Chinese "were not expecting this [Western unity] from us, so now they must be scared," the diplomat added.

Agenda

China and Hungary on the spot This WEEK

Top EU officials are expected to tell Chinese president Xi Jinping that his country will face serious consequences if it sides with Russia. Hungary's Orbán will face a united opposition at the polls.

China backs shutting Ukraine out of Nato

In Munich, Volodymyr Zelensky voiced his concerns that the chances of Nato membership for his country may already have been diminished, because of the pressure from Russia.

Opinion

How the EU's money for waste went to waste in Lebanon

The EU led support for the waste management crisis in Lebanon, spending around €89m between 2004-2017, with at least €30m spent on 16 solid-waste management facilities. However, it failed to deliver.

Latest News

  1. Germany unsure if Orbán fit to be 'EU president'
  2. EU Parliament chief given report on MEP abuse 30 weeks before sanction
  3. EU clashes over protection of workers exposed to asbestos
  4. EU to blacklist nine Russians over jailing of dissident
  5. Russia-Ukraine relations the Year After the war
  6. Why creating a new legal class of 'climate refugees' is a bad idea
  7. Equatorial Guinea: a 'tough nut' for the EU
  8. New EU ethics body and Moldova conference This WEEK

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us