The hawks are getting louder in Europe. But the beleaguered Continent needs China’s business, and also hopes Beijing might help broker peace in Ukraine.
| French President Emmanuel Macron will on Wednesday become the second European leader in less than a week to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, as Europe makes overtures to China despite a drumbeat of hawkish Brussels rhetoric.
Mr Sanchez struck a deal to ship almost half Spain’s almonds to China, and will open a cultural institute in Shanghai. Mr Macron’s delegation reportedly includes executives from Airbus and Alstom. “The Chinese Communist Party’s clear goal is a systemic change of the international order with China at its centre.”Despite this hawkish framing, her ultimate point was that Europe should not “de-couple” from China, but should instead “de-risk” – which she said meant using diplomacy to find areas to productively co-operate.
Mr Fu has called for a restart of talks on a stalled EU-China investment treaty, which Washington has been determined to thwart. Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in its capital, Vilnius, using the name “Taiwan” rather than “Taipei” – a deep red line for Beijing. China’sprompted the EU to circle the wagons around Lithuania, creating a more hawkish mood in Brussels in particular.
But other big western European countries, particularly Germany, France and Spain, have remained more equivocal.Mr Macron sees France as a “balancing power” rather than a values crusader, able to get people to the table and broker deals.
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