| How best to handle China continues to divide the Conservative Party in Brexit Britain. In the EU, they are trying the old good cop, bad cop routine.
During the Brexit negotiations, Emmanuel Macron performed the role of bad cop to perfection.
But the French president is playing nice with Xi Jinping during his state visit to China.
Along for the ride is Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, who recently signalled a harder tone on Beijing from Brussels.
The war in Ukraine hovers over the visit.
China is by far Vladimir Putin’s most powerful remaining ally. There are European hopes Beijing will intercede with Moscow and warnings not to supply the Russians with weapons.
Mr Macron laid on the flattery and told XI his country had a vital role in finding the “path to peace”.
At the same time, he brought over 50 business leaders such as the boss of Airbus in the hope of signing some deals.
Trade with China is trickier than it once was, even notwithstanding the abuse of the Uighyers or building belligerence over Taiwan.
The war in Ukraine exposed the folly of embedding supply chain dependencies with autocratic and aggressive regimes.
Europe was addicted to Russian gas and is every bit as dependent on Chinese supplies of raw materials and semiconductors.
It is not surprising that Lithuania, already burnt from tangling with China over Taiwan, warned Mr Macron and Mrs von der Leyen to not “make the same mistake twice”.
The European Commission president called for a “de-risking” in relations with China.
She said the “decoupling” advocated for in Washington was not realistic but targeted action in certain critical and sensitive trade issues was necessary.
Mrs von der Leyen did raise concerns over the risk of industrial espionage and “unfair practices” against European companies exporting to China.
But the former German defence minister can’t afford to be too confrontational.
She is just the latest European leader to make the trip to meet Xi.
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez was in China just last week on the hunt for trade.
And in November, German chancellor Olaf Scholz became the first European leader to visit Beijing for three years in a controversial visit.
China has been Germany’s largest trade partner for the last seven years in a row. Historically Berlin has dominated the trade discussions between Brussels and Beijing.
There are similarities with the deep trading relationship between Germany and Russia that lasted for years before last year’s invasion.
Why did Mr Macron decide to take Mrs von der Leyen to China with him in what is an unusual move?
With his good cop hat on, the French president might have calculated a show of European unity might press home the need for peace in Ukraine.
But it could also be a bad cop’s not-so-subtle reminder to Mr Scholz that he can’t always put German interests ahead of European ones. |
Some View on the World 