European Leaders Seek China’s Assistance: What does this mean for the EU?

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Recently, Chinese leader Xi Jinping was elected to stay president for the next five years and people from all over the world have traveled to China to meet him. Famous leaders like the French President Emmanuel Macron, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were some of them!

The German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, visited the Chinese city of Tianjin on Thursday. It was following a previous visit there in November by the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz. However, someone from the European Union (EU) who would have gone to China this week can’t go, because they tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19).

The entire 27-nation trading bloc of The EU has good reason to keep going back and forth between Europe and China.

President Xi of China is an ally of Russian President Putin and he could help a lot to end the war in Ukraine that’s been going on for over a year. This war has caused energy prices to go up, making it harder than ever for countries trying to recover after being affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

The Europeans need help from the Chinese leader, Xi. They want him to talk to both Ukraine’s and Russia’s leaders but they do not think that he can solve the problem on his own. China had given a peace plan for Ukraine, however European officials say that this was just a list of ideas which were already known before and are not satisfactory for them.

The European Union is worried that Chinese leader Xi Jinping will give weapons to Russia. They’re especially concerned about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to put nuclear weapons near Belarus, which happened soon after he met up with Xi and had a very strong friendship.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that this situation is really important and she praised China for calming down an argument between Saudi Arabia and Iran. She also said the “influence” of Beijing on Russia will have something to do with Europe’s relationship with China.

The EU is worried about a possible battle near Taiwan. Right after a prominent leader from the EU left, China started practicing for war. The US is mainly interested in Taiwan’s military and strategy side of things, but the EU looks at it more from an economic standpoint and believes in its democracy.

The United States wants to make sure China’s leader, Xi Jinping, understands that they respect the area that China controls. They also want him to stay calm. But at the same time, the US has a difficult job ahead of them as they work on getting other countries to join together and put pressure on China for their attempts to take over more land.

A high-ranking official from Europe explained on Wednesday that both European and Chinese governments have a common motive to preserve the current relationship as it’s been working out perfectly for all involved parties for many years.

Last year, the EU and China exchanged goods worth 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion) every day! But, in the past 10 years, the EU has been getting less stuff than what it gives away and wants to make a better trade deal.

Europe is trying to limit how much stuff it gets from China, like valuable minerals and advanced parts. This is because Europe needs to stop getting energy from Russia, which isn’t always dependable. It’s tough to do this without China taking advantage of the situation.

For the past twenty years, the Chinese government has been using its money and power to try to make France, Germany, and other friends of America change their opinions on different topics such as defense, trade, human rights, and Taiwan.

The Chinese are very unhappy with how America is controlling most of the world and they want China to become one of the biggest countries in the world.

Qin Gang, the Chinese foreign minister, said last month that America’s opinion about China has changed. They now see it as a big challenge for them instead of just seeing it in a normal way. He also added that Europe’s relationship with China does not depend on anyone else but themselves.

President Macron’s visit seemed to show that Qin may not just be hoping for the best. As things get more heated between China and America, the French leader said it is important that Europe remains independent in its actions.

Macron stated on Wednesday that even if countries are friends, they still have a right to make their own decisions. He also added again “Being a friend doesn’t mean you have to be a slave”.

Comments like this could cause a lot of trouble between the European Union (EU) and the United States. In fact, it has already created divisions within the EU.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki pointed out that some Europeans were too slow to understand (what) China was doing. He said, “You can see this in the past couple weeks as some European leaders visited Beijing.” He added, “I don’t get this idea of ‘strategic autonomy’ if it means shooting ourselves in the foot.”

The White House said it doesn’t agree with President Macron’s idea that Europe should be a power by itself on the world stage. U.S. officials think that we are starting to doubt China, like when Holland said “no” to China buying some special computer components and German Chancellor Scholz even asked Xi Jinping not to give weapons to Russia.

The EU has a strategy when it comes to China – that they should be seen as a partner, competitor, and rival. Recently people visited China with the aim of getting its leaders to promise peace, give fair trade deals and try to reduce Europe’s need for resources from China.

Joe McDonald is in Beijing, Aamer Madhani is in Washington, Geir Moulson is in Berlin, Vanessa Gera is in Warsaw and Mike Corder is in The Hague (in the Netherlands). All five of them contributed in some way.