Europe Starts to Come Around on China Putting business first and alienating the U.S. has backfired.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-starts-to-come-around-on-china-11620341264?mod=opinion_lead_pos4
President Biden wants to work with traditional American allies to resist China’s increasing belligerence. While the European Union has tried to steer its own course, Beijing is doing its part to revive the trans-Atlantic alliance.
“We now in a sense have suspended . . . political outreach activities from the European Commission side,” EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told AFP on Tuesday. “The environment is not conducive for ratification of the agreement.” Mr. Dombrovskis is referring to the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, a deal meant to provide Europe and China greater access to each other’s markets.
Weeks before becoming U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan requested “early consultations” with Brussels about the pact. Europe responded by announcing it had reached an agreement-in-principle with China. But the European Parliament and 27 national leaders still have to approve the deal.
That process became more complicated in March, when the European Union announced sanctions targeting four Chinese officials involved with human-rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. Beijing responded by imposing sanctions on several members of the European Parliament and other Europeans critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
It’s hard to ratify a deal with a country that has sanctioned officials who will vote on ratification, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel is still trying. She spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron last month, and the German readout of the call didn’t mention human rights. The French later said it came up, but Ms. Merkel is trying to play down the issue as she seeks to solidify the deal before elections this year.
Europe understandably wants to resolve its trade issues with China—so does the U.S. Germany exported nearly €100 billion in goods to China last year, and the trade pact theoretically creates opportunities in autos, telecom and healthcare, among other industries.
But Ms. Merkel’s “change through trade” philosophy—something we once hoped for China—is out of date. Economic relations need to consider China’s often predatory mercantilism, IP theft and cyber spying. Beijing saw Europe’s snub of the new U.S. Administration last year as a major geopolitical victory.
An EU official clarified Tuesday that the talks were “not quite suspended” and “ratification will depend on how the situation evolves.” Ms. Merkel and her allies will continue to fight for the deal. But skepticism is growing in the European Parliament, the German political class and the European public. Rather than struggle to pass a flawed deal, the Continent would be better off regrouping and approaching China in a united trade front with the U.S. and other like-minded nations.
Winston Churchill may or not have said the famous line, “The Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” But we’d understand if Mr. Biden feels the same way about his friends in Europe.
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