Are the United States and Europe Starting to See Eye-to-Eye on China?

Just a few months ago, the United States and Europe were divided on China. As a candidate, now U.S. President Joe Biden had repeatedly committed to renewing the transatlantic partnership and coordinating with America’s European allies to deal with Beijing. After four years of Donald Trump shunning Europe and approaching China unilaterally, the Biden Administration vowed to work with Europe in developing a common approach.
Yet even before Biden took office in January, it appeared Europe had little interest in joining Washington to counter Beijing. Many European leaders expressed a desire to remain “neutral” in the emerging contest between the United States and China. That was particularly the case on the economic front. In December 2020, German Chancellor Angela Merkel used Germany’s EU presidency to push for the completion of a new investment agreement with Beijing only weeks before Biden’s inauguration, despite concerns from the incoming administration regarding the deal. To many Europeans, the allure of China’s massive market was simply too big to alienate Beijing politically.
But fast forward a few months and Europe appears to have changed its tune. In a remarkable shift, the United States and its European partners appear to be converging in their views on how to approach China.

Biden’s first presidential trip to Europe a few weeks ago embodied this shift. Attending summits with the Group of Seven (G-7), the European Union (EU), and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Biden and his team were able to produce an unprecedent degree of alignment on China among America’s allies.
The NATO summit was perhaps the most notable example. Meeting in Brussels, the Atlantic partners agreed that “China’s stated ambitions and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to Alliance security.” This was the first time the NATO alliance has asserted it needs to address Beijing’s growing power. The alliance’s members also called on NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to develop a new strategic concept to be adopted at next year’s summit in Madrid.
This came after the G-7 nations signed off on a communique in which the allies agreed to hold China accountable for its human rights abuses, as well as its weak commitment to the rule of law. The communique focused on China’s treatment of the Uyghurs, its tightening grip on Hong Kong, and its increasingly aggressive behavior towards Taiwan. That was a significant step up from the last in-person G-7 summit in 2019, where the final communique merely called for violence in Hong Kong to be avoided and contained no reference to Chinese actions in Xinjiang.
Finally, the joint statement from the U.S.-EU summit included a mutual pledge to coordinate policies and echoed the G-7 in directly referencing China’s actions in the Taiwan Strait. This was significant for several reasons. Firstly, Taiwan had never before been mentioned in a joint statement between an American president and EU leadership. Second, the EU has significant economic leverage with China. Brussels joining Washington in a statement condemning China sent a clear signal to Beijing about the shared U.S. and European concern about China’s apparent attempts to alter the status quo.
These statements are more than just rhetoric. For one, they reflect an emerging shift in American and European public attitudes toward China. New polling data confirms this. A recent survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Bertelsmann Foundation between March and April this year found Europeans, Canadians, and Americans all hold largely negative views of China as an international actor. Of those polled, 52 percent perceived China as a “rival” while only 32 percent saw it as a “partner.”

Moreover, these statements represent a significant achievement for Biden and his team. By getting NATO, the EU, and the G-7, all core institutional tenets of the transatlantic relationship, to acknowledge the challenge posed by China, the United States was finally able to lay the groundwork for what may eventually become a concrete U.S.-EU approach to Beijing. Now, American and European diplomats have a concrete reference point they can turn to in their efforts to improve transatlantic coordination on China going forward.

To be sure, the real test for Biden and his team still lies ahead. Having gotten the allies to agree, in broad terms, on a shared way forward on China, the administration must now hold Europeans to their word and implement a policy agenda that addresses numerous challenges posed by Beijing.
To translate words into action, the Biden administration will have to address the remaining hesitation in some European countries about getting tougher on Beijing. Biden and his diplomats serving in Europe will need to continue making clear and sophisticated arguments to European governments and their publics about the tangible benefits of a transatlantic approach to Beijing. Whether or not they can effectively do so remains to be seen. But they appear to be on the right track.

References:

European Commission (2021). “EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment: Milestones and documents,” EC. Available at: https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=2115 [Accessed 25 June 2021]

European Council (2021). “G7 Leaders’ Declaration – Biarritz, France, 26 August 2019,” The European Council of the European Union. Available at: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2019/08/26/g7-leaders-declaration-biarritz-26-august-2019/ [Accessed 28 June 2021]

NATO (2021). “Brussels Summit Communique,” The North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Available at: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_185000.htm [Accessed 24 June 2021]

Sevastopulo, Demetri; Brundsen, Jim; Fleming, Sam; and Peel, Michael (2020). “Biden team voices concern over EU-China investment deal,” The Financial Times. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/2f0212ab-7e69-4de0-8870-89dd0d414306 [Accessed 24 June 2021]

The German Marshall Fund and the Bertelsmann Foundation (2021). “Transatlantic Trends 2021: Transatlantic opinion on global challenges,” GMF and the Bertelsmann Foundation. Available at: https://www.gmfus.org/publications/transatlantic-trends-2021 [Accessed 27 June 2021]

The White House (2021). “Carbis Bay G7 Summit Communique,” The White House Briefing Room. Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/13/carbis-bay-g7-summit-communique/ [Accessed 25 June 2021]

The White House (2021). “U.S.-EU Summit Statement,” The White House Briefing Room. Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/15/u-s-eu-summit-statement/ [Accessed 26 June 2021]