Europe

As the EU navigates an increasingly Sino-American world, it finally sees the need to stand together, even against Beijing.

The European Union has issued a plan to cut its dependence on Chinese supplies of rare earths, lithium batteries and solar-cell components, as it...

The head of the Czech Senate declared himself to be Taiwanese in a speech at Taiwan’s parliament on Tuesday, channeling the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s defiance of communism in Berlin in 1963, as China slammed him for crossing a red line.

A total of 70 leaders from the European Parliament, U.S., Canada, and Australia on Tuesday (Aug. 25) issued a statement backing an upcoming visit to Taiwan by a Czech delegation and denouncing Chinese pressure to scuttle the trip.

Beijing is keen to keep Europe from mirroring Washington’s hardened China stance.

Central and eastern European countries used to be buoyant about benefiting from China’s economic largesse, but now – like the EU itself – many view Beijing as a threat.

The United States and the European Union have unexpectedly announced a new united front against China, setting up a top-level dialogue to be led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell.

A videoconference summit this week between leaders from China and the European Union had a wide-ranging agenda including trade, climate change, cybersecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic, but it ended without agreements, or even a joint statement.  

In a report published earlier this month, Andrew Small of the European Council on Foreign Relations argues that the EU’s engagement with China will henceforth have a new purpose: to structure the Sino-European relationship in a way that reduces Europe’s dependence on Chinese trade and investment.

Beijing’s handling of the pandemic has changed long-standing European assumptions about its reliability as a crisis actor and its approach to the European project.