European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will visit China this week, stepping up the pace of visits by European leaders who believe they can influence Moscow in the war in Ukraine.
Borrell’s visit, between April 13 and 15, comes just days after French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited the Asian country. Pedro Sanchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, also visited China two weeks ago. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in Beijing last November. Charles Michel, President of the European Council, followed suit.
European leaders have repeatedly urged Beijing to use its influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine. “If there’s only one country that can make Moscow change its calculations, it’s China”admitted an official from Macron’s office on the eve of the French leader’s visit.
However, Beijing’s position on the conflict remains intact. China has said it is neutral but maintains an “unrestricted” relationship with Russia and has refused to criticize the invasion. The country has previously criticized the imposition of sanctions on Moscow and openly blamed NATO expansion for the war.
In a document proposed last February to end the conflict, Beijing stressed the importance of “respecting the sovereignty of all countries,” referring to Ukraine, but also called for an end to the “Cold War mentality” – a term often used by China to criticize US foreign policy.
None of Europe’s leaders has managed to lift the cloud of ambiguity about the government’s real intentions [presidente chinês] Xi Jinping in Ukraine,” Sylvie Kauffmann, a columnist for Le Monde, recalled after Macron’s visit.
Borrell arrives in Beijing confident that the Beijing-Moscow partnership has limits, despite official rhetoric to the contrary. He recently stressed that China should act as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to protect the rules-based international order. Beijing has “moral obligations” and cannot side with the aggressor, he said.
“We were clear with China: its stance on atrocities and war crimes will determine the quality of our relations with Beijing,” noted the head of European diplomacy.
Borrell’s visit also comes after China’s Emmanuel Macron defended that Europe must move away from growing tensions between Beijing and Washington caused by the Taiwan issue and forge “strategic autonomy” at all levels, from defense energy.
Europe must remain focused on its own objectives, he stressed. It is in our interest to accelerate [uma crise] about the Taiwan issue? No,” he said. “The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans would become followers of this issue and adapt to the US agenda and an overreaction from the Chinese side,” he noted.
Macron’s statements have been the target of criticism from members of the US Congress and parliamentarians from Eastern and Central European countries, at a time when Washington is reaffirming its commitment to Ukraine’s defense.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio called Macron’s interview “disturbing” and suggested Washington reconsider its support for Ukraine. “If Macron is speaking on behalf of all of Europe and his position now is that they are not going to take sides between the US and China on the Taiwan issue, then maybe we shouldn’t be taking sides either…and [deixá-los] dealing only with Ukraine,” he said.
Analysts also believe that Macron’s statements signaled Europe’s “discord” towards China, as they contrast Ursula von der Leyen’s position in Beijing that a change in the status quo through violence in the Taiwan Strait would be “unacceptable”.
So Josep Borrell will have to “correct some illusions [chinesas] on the position of the EU”, in response to Macron’s statements, Reinhard Bütikofer, the chairman of the Chinese delegation in the European Parliament, pointed out. “He must explicitly insist that the EU opposes any unilateral change in the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Source: DN
