China’s Coronavirus Diplomacy Has Finally Pushed Europe Too Far
April 22, 2020, 5:00 AM GMT+8 With a series of high-level summits culminating in a visit to Germany in the fall by President Xi Jinping, this was supposed to be the year of Europe-China diplomacy. Instead, Europeans are warning of a damaging rift.
Diplomats talk of mounting anger over China’s behavior during the coronavirus pandemic including claims of price gouging by Chinese suppliers of medical equipment and a blindness to how its actions are perceived. The upshot is that Beijing’s handling of the crisis has eroded trust just when it had a chance to demonstrate global leadership.
“Over these months China has lost Europe,” said Reinhard Buetikofer, a German Green party lawmaker who chairs the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China. He cited concerns from China’s “truth management” in the early stages of the virus to an “extremely aggressive” stance by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing and “hard line propaganda” that champions the superiority of Communist Party rule over democracy.
Rather than any single act responsible for the breakdown, he said, “it’s the pervasiveness of an attitude that does not purvey the will to create partnerships, but the will to tell people what to do.” While the Trump administration has resumed its swipes at China, European officials are traditionally less willing to be openly critical, in part for fear of retribution. The fact that politicians in Berlin, Paris, London and Brussels are expressing concern over Beijing’s narrative on Covid-19 hints at a deeper resentment with wide-ranging consequences. Already some European Union members are pursuing policies to reduce their dependence on China and keep potential predatory investments in check, defensive measures that risk hurting China-EU trade worth almost $750 billion last year. It’s a turnaround from just a few weeks ago, when China emerged from the worst of its own outbreak to offer web seminars on best practice gained from tackling the virus where it first emerged. It also airlifted medical supplies including protective equipment, testing kits and ventilators to the worst-hit countries in Europe and elsewhere, in a show of aid-giving that contrasted with America’s international absence. The pandemic offered a chance for mutual solidarity. But it didn’t last. “Now the atmosphere in Europe is rather toxic when it comes to China,” said Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China. Belt and Road Concerns were aired during a March 25 call of Group of Seven foreign ministers about how China would proceed during the crisis and once it subsided. Ministers were told that Europe and the G-7 must be on guard as Beijing was likely to move “more self confidently, more powerfully” and in a way that exploits its leverage when other nations were still in lockdown, according to a European official familiar with the call. In public, Chinese officials have struck a conciliatory tone. “When people’s lives are at stake, nothing matters more than saving lives. It is useless to argue over the merits of different social systems or models,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference on April 17. China, he said, is ready to work with the international community, including European countries, to “jointly safeguard the health and safety of all mankind.” Yet China’s means of going about it has backfired in much of Europe. An anonymously authored text posted on the website of the Chinese embassy in France this month falsely accused French retirement home staff of leaving old people to die. It was “an incredible accusation on one of the most sensitive and tragic aspects” of the crisis in France, Mathieu Duchatel of the Institut Montaigne wrote on Twitter. The embassy website comments rang alarm bells for the needless offense caused. China underestimated the reaction to its conspiracy theories amplified by propaganda outlets, according to two European officials in Beijing. What’s more, China’s insistence that aid be accompanied by public thanks and praise has undercut the goodwill it might otherwise have gained, they said. Vulnerable Companies European governments have become more wary of China over the past two years as Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative on trade and infrastructure expanded across the continent, snapping up strategic assets including ports, power utilities and robotics firms from the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea. While some nations including Italy and Portugal have been enthusiastic backers of Belt and Road, another program known as Made in China 2025, whereby Beijing seeks to become the world leader in key technologies, is seen in many quarters as a further threat to European industry. With stock prices tumbling on the coronavirus crisis, countries including Germany that have investment screening regulations have tightened them and extended their scope in response to concerns that China, among others, could take controlling stakes in companies suddenly made vulnerable. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager suggested in a Financial Times interview that governments go further and buy stakes in companies themselves to stave off the threat of Chinese takeovers. More far-reaching still are proposals to curb dependence on China, not just for medical supplies but in areas such as battery technology for electric vehicles. EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said last week there’s a need for a discussion “on what it means to be strategically autonomous,” including building “resilient supply chains, based on diversification, acknowledging the simple fact that we will not be able to manufacture everything locally.” Japan already earmarked $2.2 billion from its $1 trillion stimulus package to help its manufacturers shift production away from China. Without mentioning China, EU trade ministers agreed in an April 16 call on the importance of diversifying to “reduce the reliance on individual countries of supply.” As a first step, Berlin plans state funds and purchase guarantees to start industrial production of millions of surgical and face masks by late summer. China currently exports 25% of the world’s face masks. Wuttke of the EU trade chambers said the discussion on supply chains began when Beijing shut its ports earlier this year, prompting fears that pharmaceutical ingredients produced in China would not reach Europe, and causing policymakers to realize that strategic products had to be secured. According to another European official, even official suppliers were breaking contracts for items such as ventilators and scamming people, burning bridges along the way. “People want to have their eggs in more baskets,” said Wuttke. Burning bridges Certainly, the tenor of the political debate in Europe has shifted since. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper that China’s revising up of the death toll last week was “alarming,” while French President Emmanuel Macron said in an FT interview there were “clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about.” U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it can’t be “business as usual” with China once the pandemic is over. As a result of the Covid-19 crisis, pressure is growing on the U.K. to reverse its decision to allow Huawei Technologies a limited role in its fifth-generation mobile networks, while France may be less inclined to give Huawei a chunk of its 5G contracts after the embassy spat. Germany must make a decision by around midyear on Chinese involvement in its 5G networks. In the battle of narratives, Germany is key, according to Janka Oertel, director of the Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. As well as Europe’s dominant economy, its trade ties to China dwarf those of its neighbors: German exports to China in 2019 were higher than the U.K., France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands combined. It will assume the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1, giving it the chance to turn the debate in Europe. China could still win back favor and help secure a greater global role by acceding to demands to open up its markets and introduce a more level playing field for international business, said Oertel. “That would be something that the Europeans would very much appreciate,” she said. All the same, she added: “I don’t think it’s very likely.” — With assistance by Patrick Donahue
April 22, 2020, 5:00 AM GMT+8
With a series of high-level summits culminating in a visit to Germany in the fall by President Xi Jinping, this was supposed to be the year of Europe-China diplomacy. Instead, Europeans are warning of a damaging rift.
Diplomats talk of mounting anger over China’s behavior during the coronavirus pandemic including claims of price gouging by Chinese suppliers of medical equipment and a blindness to how its actions are perceived. The upshot is that Beijing’s handling of the crisis has eroded trust just when it had a chance to demonstrate global leadership.
“Over these months China has lost Europe,” said Reinhard Buetikofer, a German Green party lawmaker who chairs the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China. He cited concerns from China’s “truth management” in the early stages of the virus to an “extremely aggressive” stance by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing and “hard line propaganda” that champions the superiority of Communist Party rule over democracy.
Rather than any single act responsible for the breakdown, he said, “it’s the pervasiveness of an attitude that does not purvey the will to create partnerships, but the will to tell people what to do.” While the Trump administration has resumed its swipes at China, European officials are traditionally less willing to be openly critical, in part for fear of retribution. The fact that politicians in Berlin, Paris, London and Brussels are expressing concern over Beijing’s narrative on Covid-19 hints at a deeper resentment with wide-ranging consequences. Already some European Union members are pursuing policies to reduce their dependence on China and keep potential predatory investments in check, defensive measures that risk hurting China-EU trade worth almost $750 billion last year. It’s a turnaround from just a few weeks ago, when China emerged from the worst of its own outbreak to offer web seminars on best practice gained from tackling the virus where it first emerged. It also airlifted medical supplies including protective equipment, testing kits and ventilators to the worst-hit countries in Europe and elsewhere, in a show of aid-giving that contrasted with America’s international absence. The pandemic offered a chance for mutual solidarity. But it didn’t last.
“Now the atmosphere in Europe is rather toxic when it comes to China,” said Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China. Belt and Road Concerns were aired during a March 25 call of Group of Seven foreign ministers about how China would proceed during the crisis and once it subsided. Ministers were told that Europe and the G-7 must be on guard as Beijing was likely to move “more self confidently, more powerfully” and in a way that exploits its leverage when other nations were still in lockdown, according to a European official familiar with the call. In public, Chinese officials have struck a conciliatory tone. “When people’s lives are at stake, nothing matters more than saving lives. It is useless to argue over the merits of different social systems or models,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference on April 17. China, he said, is ready to work with the international community, including European countries, to “jointly safeguard the health and safety of all mankind.” Yet China’s means of going about it has backfired in much of Europe. An anonymously authored text posted on the website of the Chinese embassy in France this month falsely accused French retirement home staff of leaving old people to die. It was “an incredible accusation on one of the most sensitive and tragic aspects” of the crisis in France, Mathieu Duchatel of the Institut Montaigne wrote on Twitter. The embassy website comments rang alarm bells for the needless offense caused. China underestimated the reaction to its conspiracy theories amplified by propaganda outlets, according to two European officials in Beijing. What’s more, China’s insistence that aid be accompanied by public thanks and praise has undercut the goodwill it might otherwise have gained, they said. Vulnerable Companies European governments have become more wary of China over the past two years as Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative on trade and infrastructure expanded across the continent, snapping up strategic assets including ports, power utilities and robotics firms from the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea. While some nations including Italy and Portugal have been enthusiastic backers of Belt and Road, another program known as Made in China 2025, whereby Beijing seeks to become the world leader in key technologies, is seen in many quarters as a further threat to European industry. With stock prices tumbling on the coronavirus crisis, countries including Germany that have investment screening regulations have tightened them and extended their scope in response to concerns that China, among others, could take controlling stakes in companies suddenly made vulnerable. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager suggested in a Financial Times interview that governments go further and buy stakes in companies themselves to stave off the threat of Chinese takeovers. More far-reaching still are proposals to curb dependence on China, not just for medical supplies but in areas such as battery technology for electric vehicles. EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said last week there’s a need for a discussion “on what it means to be strategically autonomous,” including building “resilient supply chains, based on diversification, acknowledging the simple fact that we will not be able to manufacture everything locally.” Japan already earmarked $2.2 billion from its $1 trillion stimulus package to help its manufacturers shift production away from China. Without mentioning China, EU trade ministers agreed in an April 16 call on the importance of diversifying to “reduce the reliance on individual countries of supply.” As a first step, Berlin plans state funds and purchase guarantees to start industrial production of millions of surgical and face masks by late summer. China currently exports 25% of the world’s face masks. Wuttke of the EU trade chambers said the discussion on supply chains began when Beijing shut its ports earlier this year, prompting fears that pharmaceutical ingredients produced in China would not reach Europe, and causing policymakers to realize that strategic products had to be secured. According to another European official, even official suppliers were breaking contracts for items such as ventilators and scamming people, burning bridges along the way. “People want to have their eggs in more baskets,” said Wuttke. Burning bridges Certainly, the tenor of the political debate in Europe has shifted since. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper that China’s revising up of the death toll last week was “alarming,” while French President Emmanuel Macron said in an FT interview there were “clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about.” U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it can’t be “business as usual” with China once the pandemic is over. As a result of the Covid-19 crisis, pressure is growing on the U.K. to reverse its decision to allow Huawei Technologies a limited role in its fifth-generation mobile networks, while France may be less inclined to give Huawei a chunk of its 5G contracts after the embassy spat. Germany must make a decision by around midyear on Chinese involvement in its 5G networks. In the battle of narratives, Germany is key, according to Janka Oertel, director of the Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. As well as Europe’s dominant economy, its trade ties to China dwarf those of its neighbors: German exports to China in 2019 were higher than the U.K., France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands combined. It will assume the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1, giving it the chance to turn the debate in Europe. China could still win back favor and help secure a greater global role by acceding to demands to open up its markets and introduce a more level playing field for international business, said Oertel. “That would be something that the Europeans would very much appreciate,” she said. All the same, she added: “I don’t think it’s very likely.” — With assistance by Patrick Donahue
一旦中国没有钱了呢?
中美现在贸易只占六分之一，能伤筋骨，不能断其利。不承认甚至要打击中国作为三极之一的存在，没用的。
没有回答我的问题，一旦中国没了钱呢?
这是跟中国有多大仇恨
一旦美国没钱了呢？俄罗斯没钱了呢，英国没钱了呢？
涨了三毛工资真卖力
还是没有正面回答。
友邦惊诧这是微信体吧，海华哪里有成天重磅实锤，惊了，震了那种乱七八糟的微信体。难道国内也是跪太久了，好不容易抓一个机会来得瑟一下？
现在队伍真不行。这楼里几个这样裸奔合适吗？舆情慕课你们到底认真学了吗
措辞都带着鲜明的中文媒体色彩，这样怎么能隐蔽在群众中引导舆论？
还真是低级红高级黑
对于一个不能够保证自己说的话是真实的人，其实我感觉不需要继续任何形式的交流。
本质上他们恨的不是中国，恨的是自己爹妈给的自己身上的那层黄皮，尤其是源自东亚大陆上的那层。
这种“人”，不会有未来的，脑袋里自带自毁程序，静观其自生自灭即可。
有不同意见就这么咒人家。何况说的是中国政府那套propaganda.世界都知道那政府就代表一个党。难道中国人得一辈子为那个党背书?华人在外面评论这个党就是恨中国?拿爸妈跟这个党比，真当是党妈了?
它已经正面回答了 -美国没钱可以印，俄国没钱有资源，中国没钱只能十四亿人质吃土
中国是犯了很大的错误，但有一说一，1月27号就禁了出发海外的旅行团，私人出境旅客测体温，我觉得还是在尽力不往外扩散的。
西方国家这次损失惨重，跟他们轻敌有很大关系，前几个月都还居然提倡不戴口罩，医护也是，简直了！
不是说drop了吗，就前几天。
60%呢，一大笔，能不卖力嘛
没有，官员出来说不会改变的，一定会让华为参与
吐了，成天撒谎的人指责别人不真实
看隔壁的楼，最新的消息还是要用。
这是很多人典型的暴发户心态。
美国联邦政府不能说做得很好。但是和欧洲很多国家政府(比如，英国，意大利，西班牙)相比，一点也不差。
暴发户怎么了？
比破落户还是强百倍，对不对？
世上不只有暴发户和破落户。
"暴发户"这个词，给发明出来，肯定有其原因。
名词多了去了，跟你身份真正匹配的却不多，对不对？
“帮助”？提这个词也太不要脸了。怎么帮？用至今都是虚假的数据？用铺天盖地的幸灾乐祸和恶意？幻想自己就要当世界老大的全民高潮？抢占人家新药专利？为了政治正确淡化新药作用，强推啥狗屁中药？用人家的伤疤（911）赤裸裸威胁？断交部拙劣的甩锅挑衅？搜刮全世界人道物资，企图卡人家脖子？收了人家的捐增，转头祝别人“疫帆风顺”，倒卖物资谋求暴利？出口假冒伪劣产品祸害别人？腆着脸到处求表扬求赞美？
桩桩件件，无耻无下限。
联合国感谢的是武汉人民，不是CCP也不是中国政府。中国政府全中国人民都应该感谢武汉人民的牺牲。
暴发的只是姓赵的，p民和wm们永远不在其中
赞雪亮双眼，仗义执言。
偷换概念，胡搅蛮缠，造谣污蔑，歇斯底里，人身攻击，这些勾当在以下身份的人上有充分体现。对号入座吧。
他们就是投毒的。他们在罗马那天意大利西班牙还有乌央央的大陆旅游团在遍地投毒。
你还得赖在破落户家不走，这是多跟自己过不去。
哦，忘了，暴发户看不上你，你倒是想回去贴暴发户来着
这有什么难回答的，英美法没钱了可能会闭关可能会巴结有钱的呗。下面你回答一下中国没钱了怎么办？
你第二段话，是暗指中国？英美法现在吵吵的不就是不能相信中国说的话是真实的么？所以你的意思是英美法不应该和中国有任何形式的交流？
问题不是在这。你这属于洗地没有洗到点子上。
层主的id不错
确实是low到让人无法直视
同意，毛病不改，积恶成习
别自己意淫了，谎话说多了，自己都不记得什么是事实了。典型精神病痴人说梦的症状
说的真解气!
现在有些素质差的小留也这样，原来是党纲培训的