After more than seven years of negotiation with Beijing, the EU’s landmark deal with China landed with a thud. Ill-timed, unenforceable and naive were just some of the charges leveled at the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) concluded Dec. 30.
After a week of relative silence, governments are fighting back at criticism they see as unfair.
Interviews with government officials in Europe’s main capitals showed a common conviction that the deal not only contains real concessions by Beijing, but that it puts the EU on a stronger footing to reengage with Washington after four years of antagonism by US President Donald Trump.
Rather than a rebuke to the incoming administration of US president-elect Joe Biden, as critics have charged, the accord represents the first step back to a multilateral order after Trump’s “America First” stance, a senior official in Berlin said.
The US needs Europe as a global player, not a vassal, so it is in US interests that the bloc presents itself as a geopolitical force in its own right, another senior official in Rome said.
“Yes, it may be seen as more of a strategic, autonomous approach towards China,” and one that Biden might not like, former Germany minister of foreign affairs and vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told Bloomberg Television. “But on the other hand there is enough room to maneuver to join hands” and forge a common stance on China.
European lawmakers and China watchers on both sides of the Atlantic argue the bloc’s leaders were naive to trust Beijing on the deal’s provisions on sustainable development, including commitments on forced labor that they say would never be met.
By signing the agreement now, EU leaders are gifting China a diplomatic coup as it quashes dissent in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, they say.
EU officials say that the deal, which commits China to provide greater market access, potentially increasing bilateral trade worth US$650 billion in 2019, was as good as it could get and significantly more than anyone else has achieved.
The investment deal is not devised to address human rights issues, but still grants Europe leverage in its discussions with China, French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said.
The Italian official said it would have been unthinkable until recently to bring China toward adherence on international standards on workers’ rights.
“This is the most ambitious outcome on market access, on the level playing field and on sustainable development that China has ever agreed with a third country,” European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters on Dec. 30 in Brussels.
While “not a panacea” for all Europe’s issues with China, “it certainly helps to address a number of challenges,” he said.
Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who joined a video call with EU leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Dec. 30, see the CAI as a start, with ongoing talks with China on issues outside the scope of the deal to come, the French president’s office said.
These include climate, where they want China to “green” the Belt and Road Initiative; global health, with vaccines to become a universal asset; debt relief for Africa; and human rights.
A core charge directed at the EU and Germany, as its biggest economy and the deal’s main proponent, is that the 27-member bloc is handing Beijing ammunition in its future dealings with the US. It should have held off for Biden to take office to agree on a common approach to China, the argument goes.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said late last month that he would welcome “early consultation” with Europe on joint concerns about China, but the deal was done anyway.
He avoided criticism of Europe in a weekend interview with CNN, saying that “we are confident we can develop a common agenda” with partners on those concerns, from human rights to technology.
Asked this week about criticism of the deal attributed to US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) dismissed his remarks as “sour grapes.”
In Europe, where the Trump administration has slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum, berated leaders over defense spending, and attempted to torpedo the nuclear deal with Iran, key governments regard the deal as a demonstration of their collective ambition to stake out a role for the EU in a world increasingly defined by great power rivalry.
While not directed against the US, it is a demonstration of Europe asserting itself, Macron’s office said.
“Obviously this has created some friction, but it’s also sent a message that when we’re talking about China, coordination with the United States cannot and will not translate into the United States telling Europeans what to do,” said Nathalie Tocci, director of the Institute of International Affairs in Rome. “We share notes, we agree more often than we disagree, but we don’t always have the same position. This is what a more balanced relationship means.”
For Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, who has seen the dealmaking up close over the long years of its progress, criticism of the final outcome fails to acknowledge the nature of interacting with Beijing.
He compared it to “barking at the Great Wall of China,” with the result that “nothing will happen.”
Instead, he said, “we managed to get through the door.”
If social media interaction is any yardstick, India remained one of the top countries for Taiwan last year. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has on several occasions expressed enthusiasm to strengthen cooperation with India, one of the 18 target nations in her administration’s New Southbound Policy. The past year was instrumental in fostering Taiwan-India ties and will be remembered for accelerated momentum in bilateral relations. However, most of it has been confined to civil society circles. Even though Taiwan launched its southbound policy in 2016, the potential of Taiwan-India engagement remains underutilized. It is crucial to identify what is obstructing greater momentum
In terms of the economic outlook for the semiconductor industry, Taiwan has outperformed the rest of the world for three consecutive years. This is quite rare. In addition, Taiwan has been playing an important role in the US-China technology dispute, and both want Taiwan on their side, reflecting the remaking of the nation’s semiconductor industry. Under the leadership of — above all — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the industry as a whole has shifted from a focus on capacity to a focus on quality, as companies now have to be able to provide integration of hardware and software, as well as
US President Joe Biden’s foreign policy on China and the Indo-Pacific region will have huge repercussions for Taiwan. The US Department of State in the final weeks of former US president Donald Trump’s term took several actions clearly aimed to push Biden’s foreign policy to build on Trump’s achievements. Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s announcement on the final day of the Trump administration that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was committing “genocide and crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang was welcome, but comes far too late. The recent dropping of “self-imposed” restrictions on meetings between Taiwanese and US officials was
In memory of Diane Baker: one of the last working dance journalists, a true dance aficionado and dear friend. On Friday, through a mutual friend, I received the shocking news that dance critic Diane Baker had passed away suddenly at her apartment in Tianmu, Taipei. The news quickly spread, and messages of concern quickly swarmed in from the dance community in Taiwan and abroad. Her sister Sharon in the US later confirmed that Diane died of a heart attack on Wednesday last week. She was 65. Diane was a dear friend to Taiwan’s dance community. Her frequent appearance at dance performances in
RSS