China, the unbeloved trade partner

⇒ Inhalt dieses Blogs: Warum ist China der ungeliebte Handels­partner Europas? Englische Übersetzung meines Blog. Quelle: Euractiv.com

by Wolf Achim Wiegand

Will Europe challenge China? Brussels does not want to quit the field uncon­tested when it comes to the fact that the People’s Republic infil­trates the European economy for self-serving reasons and wants to set the tone also in political terms, writes Wolf Achim Wiegand.

Wolf Achim Wiegand is a journalist and consultant in Hamburg. He is active in the FDP, including in the Federal Committee for Inter­na­tional Affairs as well as Country Coördi­nator and member of the ALDE Party.

Beijing’s trading methods are meeting with increased resis­tance in the EU. How can you tame a trading partner who does not want to comply with mutually agreed rules and does every­thing to gain all the benefits? It is precisely this question that is currently on the agenda of senior Commission officials.

It concerns the future relations of the union with China – a hyperactive player in world trade, which has set itself the goal of gaining supremacy on the inter­na­tional trade routes.

However, a deter­mined trade policy alone for free world trade advocates is no reason to put major obstacles in the way of a compe­titor. But the régime in Beijing has lost its former sympa­thies through aggressive and unfair action. This is why the German government is now pressing the EU to impose stricter laws against Chinese investors.

Reason for the European mistrust: the People’s Republic is currently buzzing together a world empire – and could not care less about the WTO rules. The list of allega­tions against China is long: it ranges from state-subsi­dized dumping and lack of equal oppor­tu­nities for foreign companies in China to constraint for investors to form joint ventures.

In addition, critics see tapping of techno­lo­gical know-how through targeted buying of strate­gi­cally interesting EU companies: Volvo in Sweden is already Chinese, the Greek port of Piraeus, and even a winery on the Moselle in Germany is under Chinese rule.

A recent study by the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI) and the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin corrob­orates the complaints about the sellout to an unfair player: “Europe must urgently oppose the autho­ri­tarian Chinese action.” The EU and its member state govern­ments failed to adequately analyse the conse­quences of the Chinese assault and develop a consistent counter-strategy.

It is evident that in October 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping set the goal of a “rebirth of the great Chinese nation” at the 19^th CP Congress in Beijing. His project “Made in China 2025” aims at global market leadership in key techno­logies such as data processing, robotics artificial intel­li­gence and autonomous driving cars.

Celebrated at home, Xi has become a spectre to the outside world.

The explosive nature of China, however, is not only charac­te­rised by economic dominance – Beijing also reaches for political leadership. This proves through the creation of artificial islands in the South China Sea to assert extensive sovereign rights as well as the granting of cheap credits to calm govern­ments along the “New Silk Road”, a gigantic trade route from Asia to Europe and Africa.

Countries that can no longer pay for the Chinese-supported construction of new harbours, railways and roads bleed with generation-long usage rights or explo­itation of their resources. “Creditor imperialism”, as Brahma Chellaney from the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin calls the strategy.

However, according to the study, Beijing’s lobbying policy in Brussels is parti­cu­larly severe: “China is not just knocking on Europe’s door. It has already been behind it for a long time.” The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the real ruler, purposely influences EU political and economic leaders and promotes its autho­ri­tarian society model, both internally and externally. “China as a trading partner?” has become a political issue.

EU decision-makers have a dilemma. On the one hand, they are attracted by the largest economy in the world with 1.4 billion inhabi­tants. On the other hand, China does not treat its customers as partners, but as compliant executors of its own interests. EU desires – such as better market access in China, the elimi­nation of subsidies or the renouncement of dumping prices – are falling on deaf ears with Xi and his followers.

Recently, China has been trying to split Europe. At the end of last year, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiangin met with leaders from 16 Eastern, Central and Southe­astern European countries (including five non-EU members).

The venue of the “16+1 Confe­rence”: Budapest, capital of EU member Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is the archetype of EU devia­tionism. Beijing promised more than $3 billion along the Danube River for infra­structure projects in the Balkans and in the Eastern parts of the EU.

Something similar is planned for Mediter­ranean neigh­bours inside and outside the EU.

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) commented: “There is no doubt that the 16+1 format is a kind of EU compe­tition to EU-fed funds and projects.”

Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen empha­sised that “China is investing in Europe’s divide – the EU should not sleepwalk and react only when it is already too late because much of the infra­structure in Central and Eastern Europe has become dependent on China.”

The warnings have reached Brussels. The Commission, together with the EU External Action Service, is working on a Euro-Asian networking strategy to be completed this summer. EU leaders will then have to decide in the Council on what goals, interests and principles they want to pursue towards China.

Another unres­trained spread by China with unequal market condi­tions is not in Europe’s interest. Beijing is stret­ching out its feelers: a recent White Paper of the People’s Republic states bluntly that China now wants to become active in the Arctic.

The goal is a “polar silk road” to perceive “own interests”: mining, fishing, tourism. For the CCP, which sets the tone in the Middle Kingdom, it no longer means “prole­ta­rians of all countries, unite!”, but “businessmen of all countries, unite!”

Source: Euractiv.com