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Rather than any individual act responsible for the collapse, he said, “it is the pervasiveness of an attitude that does not provide the will to create associations, but the will to tell people what to do.”
While the Trump administration has resumed its attacks on China, European officials are traditionally less willing to be overtly critical, in part for fear of retaliation. The fact that politicians in Berlin, Paris, London, and Brussels express concern over the Beijing narrative on Covid-19 suggests deeper resentment with far-reaching consequences. Some members of the European Union are already pursuing policies to reduce their dependence on China and keep potential predatory investments in check, defensive measures that risk damaging trade between China and the EU worth almost $ 750 billion a year. past.
It’s a change from just a few weeks ago, when China emerged from the worst of its own outbreak to offer webinars on best practices obtained in tackling the virus where it first emerged. It also transported medical supplies, including protective equipment, test kits, and ventilators, to the worst-affected countries in Europe and elsewhere, in a show of aid that contrasted with the international absence of the United States.
The pandemic offered an opportunity for mutual solidarity. But it didn’t last.
“The atmosphere in Europe is now quite toxic when it comes to China,” said Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.
Belt and road
The concerns were conveyed during a call on March 25 to the Group of Seven foreign ministers on how China would proceed during the crisis and once it calmed down. Ministers were told that Europe and the G-7 should be on guard as Beijing is likely to move “with more confidence and more power” and in a way that exploits its influence when other nations are still locked up, according to a European family with the call
In public, Chinese officials have reached a conciliatory tone. “When people’s lives are at stake, nothing matters more than saving lives. It is useless to discuss the merits of different systems or social models,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference. April 17. China, he said, is ready to work with the international community, including European countries, to “jointly safeguard the health and safety of all humanity.”
However, China’s means of doing so have failed in much of Europe. An anonymously written text posted on the website of the Chinese embassy in France this month falsely accused French staff in a retirement home of letting older people die. It was “an incredible accusation about one of the most sensitive and tragic aspects” of the crisis in France, wrote Mathieu Duchatel of the Institut Montaigne on Twitter.
Comments from the embassy website set off alarms for the unnecessary crime caused. China underestimated the reaction to its conspiracy theories amplified by the propaganda media, according to two European officials in Beijing. Furthermore, China’s insistence that aid be accompanied by public thanks and praise has undermined goodwill that might otherwise have been won, they said.
Vulnerable Companies
European governments have become more cautious with China in the past two years as the Xi Belt and Highway Initiative on trade and infrastructure expanded across the continent, acquiring strategic assets including ports, utility companies energy and robotics companies from the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea. While some nations, such as Italy and Portugal, have been enthusiastic sponsors of Belt and Road, another program known as Made in China 2025, for which Beijing seeks to become the world leader in key technologies, is seen in many sectors as a threat. additional for European industry.
With stock prices falling in the coronavirus crisis, countries like Germany, which have investment screening regulations, have tightened them and expanded their reach in response to concerns that China, among others, could take control of companies that suddenly became vulnerable. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager suggested in an interview in the Financial Times that governments go further and buy stakes in the companies themselves to avoid the threat of Chinese acquisitions.
Even more far-reaching are proposals to reduce China’s dependence, not only on medical supplies but also in areas such as battery technology for electric vehicles. EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said last week that a debate is needed “on what it means to be strategically autonomous,” including building “resilient supply chains, based on diversification, recognizing the simple fact of that we won’t be able to manufacture everything locally. “Japan has already earmarked $ 2.2 billion from its $ 1 trillion stimulus package to help its manufacturers drive production away from China.
Not to mention China, EU trade ministers agreed in an April 16 call on the importance of diversifying to “reduce dependence on individual supply countries.” As a first step, Berlin plans state funds and purchase guarantees to begin industrial production of millions of surgical and facial masks by the end of the summer. China currently exports 25% of the world’s face masks.
Wuttke, of the EU chambers of commerce, said the discussion on supply chains started when Beijing closed its ports earlier this year, raising fears that pharmaceutical ingredients produced in China will not reach Europe and caused policymakers realize that strategic products had to be insured. According to another European official, even official suppliers were breaking contracts for items like fans and scamming people, burning bridges along the way. “People want to have their eggs in more baskets,” said Wuttke.
Burning bridges
Certainly, the tenor of the political debate in Europe has changed since then. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the Bild newspaper that the revision of the death toll in China last week was “alarming”, while French President Emmanuel Macron said in an FT interview that “clearly things happened that we don’t know about. ” UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it cannot be “business as usual” with China once the pandemic ends.
Spain’s health ministry has canceled an order for antigen test kits from Chinese company Bioeasy after sending a previous batch, the country’s El País reported. Health authorities found that both sets of kits were defective, he said.
As a result of the Covid-19 crisis, pressure is mounting on the UK to reverse its decision to allow Huawei Technologies a limited role in its fifth-generation mobile networks, while France may be less inclined to give Huawei a share of their 5G contracts after the embassy spat. Germany must make a decision mid-year on China’s participation in its 5G networks.
In the battle of narratives, Germany is key, according to Janka Oertel, director of the Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. In addition to Europe’s dominant economy, its trade ties to China outshine those of its neighbors: German exports to China in 2019 were higher than those of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands combined. He will assume the rotating EU presidency on July 1, giving him the opportunity to change the debate in Europe.
China could still regain favor and help secure a greater global role by accepting demands to open its markets and introduce a more level playing field for international business, Oertel said. “That would be something that Europeans would greatly appreciate,” he said. Still, he added, “I don’t think it’s very likely.”
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