An EU-China Investment Treaty has been long in the works and is considered a major step in consolidating the EU-China relationship. President Xi Jinping personally got on the phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU officials recently to underline the importance of the treaty. And now there seem to be last-minute problems largely fomented by opposition to the treaty from the U.S. , including the incoming Biden Administration, as well as the White House. There is also grumbling by some EU members, such as Poland, but the U.S. stance could be the more important.
Biden’s chosen National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted on Dec. 21 that the new administration “would welcome early consultations with our European partners on our common concerns about China’s economic practices.” The New York Times quoted Trump National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot saying that any commitment from China “that is not accompanied by strong enforcement and verification mechanisms is merely a propaganda win” for the Chinese Communist Party. One irate German official said that signing the treaty would be letting Xi Jinping “give the finger” to the incoming Biden Administration. Some of the Europeans are raising the bogus issue of “forced labor” in Xinjiang to sink the talks.
Chinese attempts to include more on nuclear cooperation with Europe are meeting with resistance. The Atlanticist crowd is obviously out of control on the issue. But as the Italian Ambassador to China Luca Ferrari said in a forum in Beijing, the next century will neither be an American Century or a Chinese Century, but it will certainly be a “Pacific Century” given the diminished influence of the trans-Atlantic region in economics and world politics.
But the discussions continue, and negotiators are hoping for an agreement by the end of the year. “Progress has been achieved in a number of areas,” the European Commission said in a statement. “There are still some important outstanding matters, and talks are continuing this week.”
