Listen now | This episode of Sharp China is outside the paywall. On today's show Andrew and Bill begin with a look at tensions between the PRC and the EU ahead of the EU-China summit later this month. Topics include: Reports concerning Wang Yi's comments to EU counterparts conveying Beijing's perspective on the Ukraine war, the PRC Foreign Ministry implores the EU to "rebalance its mindset" rather than rebalancing trade, and the rare earths leverage that looms as Europe mulls its next moves. From there: Stepped up party efforts to combat overcapacity and "disorderly competition," the decades-long challenge of stimulating consumption, and extended thoughts on the spate of rumors surrounding Xi's grip on power and what can and can't be gleaned from observed behavior the past few months. At the end: A bit of TikTok news, and a welcome to the NBA for Yang Hansen.
It almost seems to me that Beijing wants to prove a point by deliberately provoking the EU. If China can get away with this and still get a summit and no substantive action from Brussels…
But the big problem of the EU has always been a collective action problem. The European Commission has long been much more forward on China. It is the lack of political support from member states that makes hard words come to nothing time and again.
The EU often is unable to act on known critical issues due to individual member states defecting for quick national interests. It is only in crises that suddenly all member states get swept along and the Commission or some forward states can maybe show some initiative. Beijing is pushing the EU-China relation towards crisis …
It almost seems to me that Beijing wants to prove a point by deliberately provoking the EU. If China can get away with this and still get a summit and no substantive action from Brussels…
But the big problem of the EU has always been a collective action problem. The European Commission has long been much more forward on China. It is the lack of political support from member states that makes hard words come to nothing time and again.
The EU often is unable to act on known critical issues due to individual member states defecting for quick national interests. It is only in crises that suddenly all member states get swept along and the Commission or some forward states can maybe show some initiative. Beijing is pushing the EU-China relation towards crisis …
it does seem like the relationship is heading towards some towards some sort of crisis or near crisis