Europe’s New Pact With China Is Terribly Timed
In future, the European Union should coordinate its approach to China with the incoming U.S. administration.
A nice result for China, anyway.
Photographer: Johanna Geron/AFP via Getty Images
European Union leaders say they’re delighted to have won “unprecedented” concessions in their new investment agreement with China. It’s to be hoped they didn’t pay too high a price. At the very least, the timing of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) is a missed opportunity.
America and the EU need to work together on China. They have a shared interest in persuading Beijing to conform to international standards on foreign trade and investment, and in securing a range of other shared goals — such as hardening critical supply chains, discouraging human-rights violations, defending allies against economic coercion, and so on. The prospects for any such cooperation were virtually nil with Donald Trump in the White House. With President-elect Joe Biden’s team in place, they’ll be much better.