A Franco-German policy towards China, which can potentially become a unified European China policy, is the topic of an interview published by MERICS [A Franco-German China policy: The road less traveled]. The interviews are with Mathieu Duchâtel, Director of Institut Montaigne’s Asia Program, representing the French view, and Mikko Huotari, Deputy Director of MERICS, representing the German view.
Duchâtel argues that France’s bilateral relations with China cannot solve problematic issues such as the French trade deficit with China and lack of reciprocal market access. “What is needed”, he argues, “is a rebalance at a systemic level and therefore, realistically, only the EU provides sufficient leverage”. In Duchâtel’s view France sees China as a ‘problem’, not as a solution. It is in this light that we should interpret France’s increasing security cooperation with Australia, India, and Japan, countries that are not exactly favorable towards China and its rise.
Mikko Huotari has a more positive view and contends that, on the surface, there have been some changes in the priorities of Germany’s policy towards China during the past few years, such as “deepening what is still largely seen as a beneficial bilateral economic partnership, strengthening collaboration on a wider range of strategic issues, and developing a forward-looking positive agenda in new areas such as intelligent manufacturing or autonomous driving”. However, there is also a negative change, that is to say, the basic assumptions about China’s domestic reform trajectory have changed given the fact that the country has become more authoritarian.
The two then argue that there is a need for a common European policy. There is positive cooperation in some areas such as ‘Market Economy Status of China’ or the investment screening mechanism to avoid political influence or forced technology transfer. However, there are serious challenges such as France and Germany’s different economic relationships with China, among other things. What is rather obvious is that there is no European country that can handle the rise of China alone, even France or Germany. Only the EU has the potential to handle this issue systemically but it has a very long way to go.
M. Forough
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