BRUSSELS – Europe is increasingly wary about China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, repression in Hong Kong, widespread censorship and rampant social control, let alone technological advances, public espionage karma and aggressive rhetoric.
Europeans are also unhappy about the “unlimited” partnership that China and Russia announced just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
But Europe does not support Taiwan’s independence and recognizes Beijing as the seat of Chinese power.
And it is more important for Europeans to keep trade open with China and its huge market, and to join Washington in trying to prevent any military aggression. for Taiwan. No European country supporting democracy has shown a willingness to go halfway around the world to help defend Taiwan militarily, as President Biden has sometimes vowed to do (before the White House corrects it).
So European leaders have been mostly silent about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan.
“This is not their war, this is America’s war, and the Biden administration has been clear over the past year and a half that the Indian Ocean is clear,” said Philippe Le Corre, a China scholar at Harvard University. – The Pacific is their priority,” said Philippe Le Corre, a China scholar at Harvard University. “Taiwan is relatively quiet and most Europeans think the trip was a mistake”, heightening tensions when “Europe itself is at war”.
If Europe is increasingly wary of new investment in China, then Taiwan is seen as a problem for the US, as is the larger Pacific, where Europe has few military assets.
Gérard Araud, a former French ambassador to both the United States and the United Nations, said: “The longstanding US support for Taiwan has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with geopolitics and democracy. trust.
The only country in the European Union to publicly support Ms. Pelosi’s visit is Lithuania. Through a Twitter message, its foreign ministerGabrielius Landsbergis, said that now that “Speaker Pelosi has opened the door to a much broader Taiwan, I’m sure other defenders of freedom and democracy will soon pass through.”
Probably. But Lithuania and Beijing are competing for Taiwan; Vilnius allowed Taiwan’s new unofficial embassy to use the word Taiwan in its name, and Beijing retaliated with trade restrictions. Other European Union countries are annoyed that Lithuania, without consulting them, has created what they see as an unnecessary problem.
German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, is an outspoken critic of China’s domestic policies and human rights abuses. Not supporting Pelosi’s trip, Ms. Baerbock warned China not to escalate tensions with Taiwan.
She told Der Spiegel newsmagazine: “We do not accept when international law is broken and a powerful neighbor attacks its smaller neighbor in violation of international law – and that of course also applies to China”. “Given Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, it is important to make it clear that the international community does not accept such behavior.”
But Europeans – and German businessmen – know that China and the European Union major partners in two-way trade.
However, growing criticism of China has made Europe more concerned about the fate of Taiwan, which, like Ukraine, is another small democracy facing an authoritarian regime. armed with nuclear weapons.
In October last year, Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, joined a charm attack in Europe, stopping in Brussels for informal meetings with European Union lawmakers. The European Parliament overwhelmingly supported a resolution calling for closer ties with Taiwan, which it described as a “democratic partner and ally in the Indo-Pacific”.
Congress then sent its first official delegation to visit the island, despite Beijing’s threats of retaliation and sanctions imposed on several prominent lawmakers.
But Parliament is largely powerless on foreign policy and does not speak for the European Commission, let alone the member states.
Britain, no longer a member of the European Union, has been more open to criticizing China than other European countries, and a visit to Taiwan by the House foreign affairs committee has long been on the list. this.
However, Britain’s trip will come in November or December, after the Communist Party congress. Before that, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, wanted to project his strength to ensure that he got another term. It was Pelosi’s timing that many analysts say angered Xi and led to such a strong response.
