As the United States confronts China more directly, Merkel is exploring deeper cooperation with Xi. Economic upheaval from the coronavirus could reinforce the temptation in Berlin to keep Beijing close.
Europe’s decision about whether to grant China market economy status is a major inflection point in China-EU relations.
Although it did not pass, the Scottish referendum on independence will have repercussions for the United Kingdom, the European Union, and perhaps even further afield.
As Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Brussels, it is important for both China and the EU to take the responsibility that their size demands for resolving global issues.
Both Europe and China are overdependent on the United States as a guarantor of the liberal world order. Both need to wake up and accept their global responsibility.
Europeans are so concerned with the crises in peripheral economies that it will come as a surprise that we may be at the beginning of a developing crisis in China.
European Union nations are increasingly making their own bilateral deals with China, damaging the unifying efforts of the E.U. trade commissioner.
