The EU’s foreign policy chief, Spaniard Josep Borell, is competing with Mike Pompeo to see who can be the most hysterical about China’s rise and demanding that it be stopped. China, he said in op-eds posted in both French and Spanish newspapers this weekend (clearly meant to counter Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s rather successful ongoing tour of Europe) declared China a “new empire” on a par with Russia, demanding that EU member states, rather than improving relations with China, fall in line and “correct” economic imbalances with Beijing before it is “too late.”
South China Morning Post notes that this barrage also falls two weeks before President Xi Jinping is expected to attend a summit hosted by EU leaders to negotiate an EU-China trade and investment agreement.
Borrell’s rant in Le Journal du Dimanche: “Russia, China and Turkey share three common characteristics: they are sovereignists on the outside and authoritarian on the inside. After 30 years where the European vision seemed to gain ground, the sovereignist vision has regained the upper hand with these new empires.” (Note that Turkey is a NATO member, but not an EU member.) He continued: “Unlike the principle of sovereignty which is based on the popular will, [their] sovereignty puts forward the sole sovereignty of the state, which is a completely different matter.”
