EU should put ties with China back on track

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's speech on EU-China relations in the European Parliament on Tuesday contains some positive messages, unlike her hostile rhetoric in the past. But it still had disinformation on China and fearmongering.

She began her speech by citing the huge progress achieved by China, saying "in just 50 years, its GDP has grown by more than 10 times". But China's GDP has grown by about 125 times since it launched reform and opening-up in 1978, or 47 years ago.

Von der Leyen came to the conclusion that the EU's access to China's market remains limited, citing that the two sides trade — some €2 billion ($2.34 billion) a day — twice the volume of the EU's trade with Switzerland. But the trade between the European Union and the United States is a little more than €2 billion a day — and she has no issue with it. In fact, it is the US which has complained about the lack of access to the EU market.

Undoubtedly, there is still huge potential to boost China-EU trade. The EU could help by just ratifying the landmark China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, which will create huge opportunities for EU businesses in the Chinese market. Also, the two sides could start talks on a free trade agreement (FTA).

Von der Leyen seemingly is not aware that China and Switzerland have an FTA since 2014. So she should spend more time outside meeting rooms when she visits China and find out for herself that European goods and cars, especially German cars, are everywhere in China, and EU companies have been welcomed by the Chinese government and people. This is in sharp contrast to the false claims of some EU politicians.

According to von der Leyen's logic, the huge number of German, French and Italian cars in China reflect nothing but "dumping of overcapacity" by those countries. The same goes for Airbus, which accounts for more than half of China's civil aviation fleet, making China the single-biggest country market for Airbus.

In its annual reports over the past years, Brussels-based China Chamber of Commerce to the EU has been reporting a deteriorating business environment for Chinese companies in the bloc and has prepared a long list of recommendations for the EU, which have all fallen on deaf ears.

More important, von der Leyen said the EU should guard against China's "influence operations", because, in her view, it should not have any influence at all while the US should continue to exert its outsized influence in the EU. If this is not discrimination, what is?

She also complained about China's industrial subsidies, despite experts saying China's competitiveness in electric vehicles and batteries is not due to subsidies but rather dedicated research and development, and investments. It's an open secret that the EU pours huge amounts of money each year to subsidize agriculture, fossil fuels, raw materials, shipbuilding, green industries and many other sectors.

Von der Leyen is desperately trying to find a scapegoat for the EU's failed policy on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. She claimed that "China is de facto enabling Russia's war economy", stressing that China's relations with Russia will be a determining factor for EU-China relations in the future. If her logic is correct, then the EU, the US and other economies from India and Brazil to South Africa and Saudi Arabia are all enabling "Russia's war economy "because they all continue to trade with Moscow.

China will not let von der Leyen, or anyone else, dictate its foreign policy, because it is independent.

It is paradoxical of von der Leyen to lecture China on respecting sovereignty and rules and principles since she has been on the wrong side in the Israel-Palestine conflict, not to mention the violation of the UN Charter and international law by the US and Israel in launching preemptive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

It's time the EU changed course and put bilateral relations back on the right track.

The author is chief of China Daily EU Bureau based in Brussels.