‘We stand strongly against any unilateral change of the
status quo, in particular by the use of force,’ the EU leader said, echoing her
recent message in Beijing.
Von der Leyen on Tuesday reaffirmed that the EU is committed to the "One China policy" | Valeria Mongelli/AFP via Getty Images
BY NICOLAS CAMUT, SUZANNE
LYNCH, GREGORIO SORGI AND EDDY WAX
APRIL 18, 2023 12:44 PM CET
European
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday again warned China against
using force in the Taiwan Strait, reiterating a message she delivered to
Chinese President Xi Jinping during a high-stakes visit to Beijing earlier this
month.
The EU,
von der Leyen said, has “consistently called for peace and stability in the
Taiwan Strait, and we stand strongly against any unilateral change of the
status quo, in particular by the use of force.”
Her
comments, made before the European Parliament, highlight the distance between
herself and French President Emmanuel Macron on the issue — a disagreement that
recently jumped into the spotlight while the two were jointly traveling in
China.
Toward
the end of the trip, Macron suggested in an
interview with POLITICO and the French daily Les Echos that Europe should be
wary of getting drawn into a U.S.-China confrontation over Taiwan, remarks that
came shortly after von der Leyen sent a stern
warning to Beijing not to meddle in Taiwan affairs.
Von der
Leyen on Tuesday reaffirmed that the EU is committed to the “One China policy.”
The approach recognizes Beijing —
which claims Taiwan as part of its territory — as the “sole legal government of
China,” but still allows informal relations with Taiwan.
Von der
Leyen’s speech to MEPs — part of a wider debate in the Parliament on China
Tuesday — was her first opportunity to address the controversy since her joint
visit with Macron to China, where the French president’s comments cast doubt
over whether Europe would help the U.S. if Beijing was to invade Taiwan. The
U.S., for its part, has pledged to defend the self-governing island.
In
his interview with
POLITICO and Les Echos, Macron said “the great risk” Europe faces is that it
“gets caught up in crises that are not ours” — including Taiwan.
The
French president’s remarks exposed the EU’s fissures on China and sparked a global
backlash. The message was particularly poorly received in Eastern and Central European
countries, which historically favor closer ties with the U.S.
Von der
Leyen’s comments in her Tuesday speech echoed similar remarks recently from
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who sought to distance herself from
Macron during her own visit to China last week.
A
“unilateral and violent change in the status quo would not be acceptable to us
as Europeans,” Baerbock said, adding that any
military escalation would be a “horror scenario for the entire world.”
In her
Tuesday speech, von der Leyen highlighted the need for an EU-wide approach to
relations with Beijing.
“I
believe we can — and we must — carve out our own distinct European approach
that also leaves space for us to cooperate with other partners, too,” she said,
reiterating her previous calls to update the bloc’s China strategy, noting that both
the EU and China have changed since the bloc last agreed on a strategy in 2019.
Earlier
on Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who postponed a trip to Beijing last week
after contracting COVID-19, stressed the need for dialogue with China,
noting that the EU had never explicitly defined China as a threat to its
security as it had done with Russia.
“We have
to keep talking to China,” he told MEPs at the opening of the session. “We
can’t stop negotiating with China when it comes to trying to sort out the
biggest problems in the world because China is not a democracy.”
Noting
that China is the biggest creditor of emerging economies, he said, “We need to
keep talking because of its massive influence in the world.”
But he
also said that it was time to “recalibrate” the EU’s strategy on China,
similarly citing the evolving global picture since 2019.
The
feud gets political
After von
der Leyen spoke, the leaders of the Parliament’s major political groups marched
to the podium to offer their takes — only further illustrating the
ideological splits across Europe.
Manfred
Weber, who helms the Parliament’s largest group, the center-right European
People’s Party (EPP), continued his string of caustic remarks targeting
Macron, accusing him of “destroying” European unity with his trip to China.
The
fallout, he said, could be dramatic, even possibly pushing the U.S. to weaken
its support for Ukraine.
“We
shouldn’t be surprised if Washington starts asking whether Ukraine is a
European issue,” Weber said. The question they may ask, he cautioned: “Why
should American taxpayers do so much to defend Ukraine?”
Leaders
of the far-right Identity and Democracy group and the Left group echoed the
criticism.
Yet
Marcon did have his defenders. Stéphane Séjourné — president of the Renew
group, which Macron’s party helped build — backed up his political ally in
Paris.
“I find
it quite incredible that we are being given moral lessons by EPP governments
who steadily built up Europe’s dependence on China in all areas,” he said
during a press conference.
Iratxe
García Pérez, the head of the Socialists and Democrats group, also fought back
against Weber, accusing him of being “happy to criticize all European leaders”
like Macron or German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, while staying silent on the
Continent’s far-right standard-bearers.
“Be
careful, because one day you might make a mistake and criticize Ms. Von der
Leyen,” she added — a nod to the fact that Weber and von der Leyen both
reside in the EPP.
Germany’s Baerbock warns China that war over Taiwan would
be a ‘horror scenario’
https://www.politico.eu/article/taiwan-china-war-germany-annalena-baerbock-horror-scenario/
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