Borrell Asserts EU Needs Own China Policy Separate From US

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell reiterated on Friday that Europe should have its own policy on China which is separate from the US. “I think that yes, we, Europeans, we have to have our own way of facing China. On the EU-US-China triangle, we are closer to Washington, certainly, but we have to have our own way and we are working on that,” he said at an event hosted European University Institute in Florence.

The fresh comments echo controversial statements of French President Emmanuel Macron issued in April wherein he told the press after a state visit to Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping that Europe must have “strategic autonomy” and not merely become ‘America’s followers’. 

Borrell on Friday was also cited as saying, “I think we should not be against the rise of China. China will become a great power, like it or not. The important thing is how China will manage its power.”

He further took the opportunity to weigh on China’s “12-point peace plan”, first published and circulated in February. He called it “not a peace plan” but said it expresses “wishful thinking.”

On this, he reflected the Western and Washington consensus: 

“The Chinese peace plan, well, it’s not a peace plan. It’s a set of wishful considerations, wishful thinking, but it’s not a peace plan,” Borrell said. “If you want peace, push Russia to withdraw.”

The West has been firmly in Zelensky’s corner on the prospect of entering negotiations. The Ukrainian leader’s unwavering position has been that all Russian forces must first withdraw from Ukrainian territory: 

Reiterating that the support for Ukraine should increase, he said that if Kyiv surrenders, Russian troops would be “on the Polish border” and Ukraine would become a “second Belarus.”

He noted that without Western support, this would happen “in a matter of days.”

Each of the member states have their own unique relations with #Beijing and to reach a common approach towards #China, the #EU will have to balance the national interests of its member states, writes @ankitadutta5 https://t.co/akIsDOTN0a

— ORF (@orfonline) May 5, 2023

When Xi went to Moscow in March, the Chinese peace initiative fell flat, given there was no movement on it and Putin seemed to greet it with ambivalence or else apathy.