If there were a place where China and Europe could initiate a new courtship in their complicated relationship, it would be the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Therefore, the recent meeting between Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, and a delegation from the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong in Beijing could perhaps be interpreted as a spring awakening of mutual interests.
As each side showered the other with compliments, Xia appealed to the Europeans to make it easier for their companies to do business in the HKSAR by offering them “an open, free and regulated business environment”. He also acknowledged the group’s contributions to the city’s long-term prosperity, inviting them to contribute even more with fresh investments.
Accordingly, members of the group from one of Hong Kong’s largest trading partners expressed their optimism about China as a whole and the HKSAR, support for the local government, and confidence in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Hong Kong’s economic prospects.
But the initial herald that relations between the parties were truly warming appeared at the beginning of March when the European Parliament lifted restrictions on European Union lawmakers meeting Chinese officials. The two-year-old ban, Brussels announced, was set to expire as it was “issued at a very specific time and context”, when it was still popular among some Western countries to allege human rights “abuses” in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
However, it would be foolish to assume that Europe developed a passion for the world’s most potent economy overnight. In fact, it is more likely that Europeans, whose industries are losing competitiveness on a daily basis, paid heed to the recent Munich Security Conference speech of China’s top diplomat Wang Yi, who said: “China is willing to synergize high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy, so as to empower each other and empower the entire world.”
It might be worth recalling that the same proposal was made to the United States at the start of the Belt and Road Initiative, but which was rejected by Washington. Later, John Kerry (US secretary of state at the time) said this was one of the biggest mistakes of his career. And though European leaders are sometimes prone to irrational behavior, even they may be capable of refraining from pushing their fellow citizens into an unproductive economic whirlpool.
However, it remains unclear whether European political elites are capable of grasping the hand — offered to them by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs — of “the healthiest and most stable constructive relationship ever”, after decades of being crushed by their supposed closest partner from across the Atlantic.
Namely, even though Barack Obama’s administration treated them with arrogance and Joe Biden promised to “bring an end to it (the Nord Stream 2 pipeline)” if Russia invaded Ukraine, European leaders treated Americans as the best of friends and hailed the US as an indispensable nation.
Then came Donald Trump, proclaiming he “doesn’t want to pick (only) on China (be)cause the European Union is almost as bad as China”. “The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That is the purpose of it”, the US president stated while announcing punishment in the form of tariffs for his European partners. Recently, he even boasted about selling “toned down” versions of weapons to “allies”, because someday “they’re maybe not our allies anymore”. Worryingly, two-thirds of arms imports to North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries in Europe come from the US.
Brussels was perhaps only beginning to wake up from its winter slumber when discussions emerged about the strategic value of Greenland, during which Denmark, the island’s sovereign nation, was criticized by figures such as US Vice-President JD Vance. This sort of treatment, as it should have, evoked “disgust” from China’s special envoy for European affairs, Lu Shaye, who recently referred to it as “a brazen and domineering policy towards Europe”. “I believe European friends should reflect on this and compare the Trump administration’s policies with those of the Chinese government. In doing so, they will see that China’s diplomatic approach emphasizes peace, friendship, goodwill and win-win cooperation,” Lu pointed out.
After the Soviet Union collapsed and the promise of liberal democracy spread a breeze of “the end of history” across the world, Europe embarked on a romance with the home of the Statue of Liberty that had vowed to keep it safe from the nightmarish other. Now that dream is dead and gone.
Former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani argues that “Brussels has slavishly followed Washington for too long” and that European leaders have become so submissive that “they are licking the boots that are kicking them in the face”. To him, the only way to restore Europe’s geopolitical standing is to consider three previously unthinkable options: Announce its willingness to quit NATO, work out a new grand strategic bargain with Russia and, lastly, work out a new strategic compact with China. Mahbubani suggests that Europe should draw the right lessons and “carry out the currently unthinkable option: Declare that henceforth it will be a strategically autonomous actor on the world stage that will put its own interests first” as “Trump may finally show some respect for Europe if it does that”.
Just as all bullies do.
The author is a journalist, geopolitical analyst and economic commentator.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
