EU strategy: tendency toward ‘comp • Table.Briefings

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell: competition is the focus of EU-China relationship.

The China strategy of the European Union is from 2019 – since then, the relationship between Brussels and Beijing deteriorated noticeably. The EU wants to stick to the three-part assessment of China as partner, competitor and systemic rival. However, the middle part increasingly shifts into the focus of the relationship. A new, clear assessment by the European External Action Service also recommends this.

The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is meeting in Beijing – and the future orientation of the People’s Republic also plays a key role some 8,000 kilometers to the west. The EU will initially continue to use its familiar triad of „partner-competitor-system-rival“ in this form, said EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell on Monday after the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. The middle part of the term „competitor“ will become more important, Borrell said. Because that was how China currently acts, he said. „We cannot pretend that China does not exist,“ he stressed.

EU strategy: tendency toward ‘competitor’

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