China’s European critics embrace Taiwan: “You are not alone”

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Two weeks after the European Parliament voted 580-26 on a resolution to strengthen EU-Taiwan relations, an official delegation of lawmakers visited Taiwan for the first time to deliver a simple message: “You are not not alone “.

Why it matters: Taiwan is an industrialized democracy facing increasing military intimidation from the Chinese government, which views the autonomous island as breakaway territory that must be brought under its control.

The visit by EU lawmakers last week sparked outrage from China’s Foreign Ministry, which warned that any country attempting to confer international legitimacy on Taiwan “will pay the price.”

Overview: The intensification of US-Chinese rivalry is expected to dominate the next century of geopolitics.

A vocal and cross-border framework of Europeans seeks to ensure that there is no ambiguity about the EU’s position in the clash between authoritarianism and democracy. One way is to forge ties with Taiwan, whose foreign minister paid a secret visit to Brussels last month. after stopping in other EU capitals.

State of play: The official EU position is that China is both a partner, a competitor and a systemic rival – a dynamic that has drawn “mowing” claims from some critics.

EU leaders say they do not want to be drawn into a hopeless conflict between the United States and China and that the world should treat China as it is, and not as it wishes. But like many countries whose views on China have deteriorated over the past two years, this non-confrontational attitude may slowly begin to change. showed that in this region, democracy can flourish and that authoritarian regimes are not the future.

How we got there: Last year ended when EU leaders joined Chinese President Xi Jinping in a video conference to finalize a landmark investment deal backed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, much to the frustration of lawmakers who had raised concerns about forced labor.

Three months later, the EU joined with the US, UK and Canada in sanctioning Chinese officials implicated in human rights abuses against Uyghurs – a symbolic expression, but overall moderate , the disapproval of the West. China responded with fury, sanctioning 27 EU ambassadors, several think tanks and academics, and prominent members of the European Parliament like Glucksmann who had criticized Beijing. The EU was forced to freeze the investment deal.

Among those blacklisted was Dovilė Šakalienė, a Lithuanian lawmaker who led parliamentary efforts in the country to designate China’s treatment of Uyghurs as genocide.

“I think the European Union, probably for the first time in decades, now understands more and more how dangerous the People’s Republic of China is,” Šakalienė told Axios in an interview.

The backdrop: Lithuania is a small Baltic country with an economy 1 / 270th the size of China, but it has been at the forefront of European efforts to deal with Beijing’s authoritarianism.

This made it the target of an unprecedented campaign of economic coercion by China. “It’s extraordinary,” President Biden’s candidate for Ambassador to China Nick Burns said during his confirmation hearing. “The Chinese government has launched an intensive campaign of intimidation (…) and the Lithuanians have stood up and they have stood their ground. They deserve our support.”

Between the lines: Šakalienė, who is also co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, says she and other Lithuanians whose families have been persecuted by the Soviets draw much from those memories of repression.

“Our very close and first-hand experience with a communist regime helps us understand how communist propaganda works and how difficult it is to be a small piece of land surrounded by a huge and bloody regime,” he said. she declared. does not support you and you find yourself alone, it is very easy to fall into despair. “

What to watch: Much of Europe’s harsh rhetoric about China comes from members of the European Parliament, which has little control over the EU’s executive institutions, or from national lawmakers who don’t. part of government.

Apart from Lithuania, there is “a tendency to criticize China when you do not hold the reins of power”, explains Noah Barkin, expert on Europe-China relations at the Rhodium group. This theory will be tested by the next German government, in which a pair of junior parties push the coalition to take a tougher line on Beijing, rather than continue Angela Merkel’s pro-engagement legacy.

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