(TibetanReview.net, Jul16’26) – The European Union has on Jul 13 accused China – along with Russia – of trying to “reshape the global order in line with their interests” and “fostering a return to a sphere-of-influence logic” in an explosive new position paper that contains some of the bloc’s strongest ever official criticism of Beijing, reported the scmp.com Jul 16.
Adopted by the EU’s 27 foreign ministers on Jul 13 without any announcement, the paper casts in stark terms China and Russia as the two principal revisionist powers challenging European security and the international rules-based order.
Written by the EU’s External Action Service – its de facto foreign office – as guidance for the bloc’s first security strategy, expected later this year, the authors have pulled no punches. As Brussels and Beijing teeter on the brink of a trade war, the text suggests China is pursuing industrial dominance as a geostrategic lever, the report said.
“At the centre of this transformation lies the determination of some powers, Russia and China foremost among them, to establish regional dominance and reshape the global order in line with their interests, fostering a return to a sphere-of-influence logic,” the paper was stated to read.
“China’s asymmetric advantages with the EU, from trade imbalances to critical raw materials to technological advances in some areas, along with its willingness to use this as leverage against the EU and others in pursuit of its ambition of becoming the world’s leading power, makes China a critical long-term strategic challenge.”
The EU is stated to see China as enabling Russia’s aggression against Ukraine as a means to increase its influence in Europe. “China’s support for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is a crucial enabler for Moscow. China will continue to seek to increase its influence in Europe.”
“By explicitly designating China as a ‘key enabler’ of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the European Union has officially synchronised its foreign policy language with Nato’s harder-edged stance,” Mikko Huotari, executive director of the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a German think tank, has said.
“This moves Beijing out of the category of a passive diplomatic bystander and directly holds it accountable for supporting the forces undermining European territorial security.”
The document also called out “China’s increasingly assertive behaviour in the South and East China Seas and across the Taiwan Strait can have a growing impact on European and Indo-Pacific security, stability and prosperity” the paper was quoted as saying.