China - EU Relations: EU slams China’s ‘authoritarian shift’ and broken economic promises

The European Union's stance on China is hardening, and that should go down well in Washington.

Only four months after Beijing and Brussels concluded the principles of a landmark investment agreement, a high-level internal report seen by POLITICO shows the EU is now increasingly pessimistic about keeping business interests separate from political concerns over what it calls President Xi Jinping's "authoritarian shift." This tougher language reflects a new approach in the EU's official communications on China.

The EU's "progress report" on China also slams Beijing for "little progress" on economic promises made by the Communist leadership, particularly in regard to opening up digital and agricultural markets, addressing steel overcapacity and reining in industrial subsidies. It calls for "further, robust" measures to deal with the new challenges posed by China, whose economy is recovering from the coronavirus pandemic at a blistering pace.

Read more at: EU slams China’s ‘authoritarian shift’ and broken economic promises – POLITICO