The Economist April 2nd 2022 51
ChinaChinaandEuropeWe need to talk about Ukraine
C
hinese leaderswanted the mood to
be “business as usual”. But the summit
between China and the European Union on
April 1st will be anything but normal. That
is because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
and China’s coldblooded response to it,
have exposed the limitations of Europe’s
old tradefirst China policies.
eu leaders approached the summit,
which is being held by videolink, with low
expectations. They hoped at least to send a
message to China’s leader, Xi Jinping, that
the Ukraine war is a defining moment for
relations, and for China’s image if it refus
es to use its influence to end the killing.
In a sense Europe’s representatives at
the summit, Charles Michel, the president
of the European Council, and Ursula von
der Leyen, the head of the European Com
mission, will be overshadowed by two fig
ures who will not be there: Germany’s for
mer chancellor, Angela Merkel, and Presi
dent Vladimir Putin of Russia. No leader is
more closely associated with Europe’s old
China policy than Mrs Merkel. In 16 years
as chancellor, she promoted an accommo
dating approach that treated China as aninvaluable source of economic opportuni
ty and a potential partner on such issues as
climate change, albeit one prone to disap
pointing lapses on human rights.
Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb
ruary 24th was a disaster for advocates of
this approach. For Russia’s use of force has
enjoyed Mr Xi’s tacit support. Though Chi
na claims to be impartial, its true stance is
anything but neutral. China blames the
war on America, for supposedly trampling
on Russia’s legitimate security interests by
expanding the natoalliance to take in for
mer Soviet satellite states. Europeans
know that nato’s expansion was actually
driven by demand from former commu
nistbloc countries that feared Russian ag
gression (for good reason). eu govern
ments are horrified by China’s refusal to
urge Russia to stop the war. They see this
footdragging as unworthy of a selfpro
claimed global power, with a permanent
seat on the unSecurity Council.
It took Chinese diplomats a while to re
alise that European leaders would not
agree to a conventional, tradefocused,
summit. China’s first offer was an onlinemeeting with its prime minister, Li Ke
qiang, a technocrat with an essentially eco
nomic portfolio. China’s preferred agenda
involved the signing of memorandums,
and talks about reviving the Comprehen
sive Agreement on Investment (cai), a
trade pact heavily backed by Mrs Merkel.
That deal has been frozen since China im
posed sweeping sanctions on members of
the European Parliament and European
diplomats in 2021. It was a lopsided retalia
tion against narrow eusanctions on three
Chinese officials and one exofficial ac
cused of rights abuses in the northwest
ern region of Xinjiang. Several govern
ments have told China that the caicannot
return to life until the sanctions are lifted
and concerns about forced labour in Xin
jiang and other abuses are tackled.
An early idea involved preceding the
summitwith a longdelayed highlevel di
alogue on human rights. China’s price for
resuming those dialogues was high, dip
lomats say. The eu and members must
stop supporting multinational, coordi
nated statements about Chinese rights
abuses in such global forums as the unHu
man Rights Council, China demanded.
That was rejected. Instead Mr Michel and
Ms von der Leyen were due to raise human
rights at the summit, touching on such
thorny topics as China’s ironfisted rule
over Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. The
pair were also expected to raise Chinese
threats towards Taiwan, the democratic is
land that China claims as its own.
China’s hope to mark the summit with aB EIJING
The war makes China uncomfortable. European leaders don’t care→Alsointhissection
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