New Report Proposes Joint U.S.-Europe Policy Action to Deal with China

NEW YORK, June 29 2020 — Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations today released a report that examines extensively the changing U.S. and European views of, and relations with, China and subsequently recommends a series of actions towards formulating joint policies in dealing with China amid an unprecedented geopolitical crisis between the world’s major powers.

The report — titled Dealing with the Dragon: China as a Transatlantic Challenge — is highly timely as it comes on the heels of a fresh proposal announced by the United States and European Union to create a new U.S.-EU dialogue on China. It is a joint publication by the Center on U.S.-China Relations, the Bertelsmann Stiftung, and the George Washington University China Policy Program.

The document is a result of a symposium that brought together 43 top China experts from both the U.S. and Europe, and it delves into seven major areas: 1) trade & investment concerns; 2) the China technology challenge; 3) dealing with the Belt & Road; 4) human rights in China; 5) China’s influence activities; 6) China and global governance; and 7) challenges in the security arena.

It identifies several overarching trends of how the U.S. and European relations with China are converging. China’s current party-state is a very different one than the one both the U.S. and Europe sought to work with in partnership over the past four decades, says the report. China, it says, has become increasingly assertive through an aggressive “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy, a mercantilist trade behavior, and an intensifying domestic social repression.

"Seventy-five years ago, a liberal world order was created giving greater freedom, less poverty, and more justice to many people in the world. Today, this order is challenged by the People's Republic of China, the nations standing by the values supporting it need to actively develop it further,” said former Germany’s Ambassador to China Volker Stanzel, who is one of the authors.

The report says that engagement can no longer be the only paradigm in framing policies towards China. Now that the U.S. and Europe strategically see China as both a competitor and a rival, it says, the balance between cooperation and competition has shifted starkly in favor of the latter.

The paper also calls for stronger exchanges between Europe and the U.S. on the issue of China. It says it is of paramount importance that transatlantic dialogues on China be more regular and better structured at all levels — Track 2 (meeting of experts), Track 1.5 (mixed official/unofficial), and Track 1 (government to government).

“As the dimensions of China’s global challenge continue to grow, it is critical that liberal democratic countries with open market economies come together in a more coordinated way to present a unified stand in support of both our political and economic systems,” said Orville Schell, who heads Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations.

The report also notes an eroding transatlantic trust because of the current U.S. administration’s approach towards its European allies and partners. Europeans, it says, are concerned about a lack of stability and dependability from the U.S. under President Donald Trump when facing China and other global challenges.

"A strong, unified European China policy would be a huge step towards establishing the EU as a serious foreign policy actor. And the more unified the European position, the better the chances for reinvigorating the transatlantic partnership,” added Bernhard Bartsch, the Senior Expert at Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Download the executive summary of the report here.

Download the full report here.

List of Symposium Participants:

American Participants

Craig Allen; President, U.S.-China Business Council

Kurt M. Campbell; Chairman & CEO, The Asia Group

Stephen J. Del Rosso; Program Director, Peace & Security Program, Carnegie Corporation of New York

Elizabeth C. Economy; C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asian Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

M. Taylor Fravel; Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science & Director of the Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Paul Gewirtz; Potter Stuart Professor of Constitutional Law and Director of the Paul Tsai China Center, Yale University School of Law

Melanie Hart; Senior Fellow & Director for China Policy, Center for American Progress

Michael Laha; Program Officer, Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society

Anja Manuel; Partner, RiceHadleyGates LLC & Director of the Aspen Strategy Forum

Evan S. Medeiros; Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies & Cling Family Distinguished Fellow in U.S.-China Relations, Georgetown University

Andrew J. Nathan; Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

Orville Schell; Arthur Ross Director, Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society

David Shambaugh, Director, China Policy Program, and Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs, George Washington University

Bruce Stokes; Executive Director, Transatlantic Task Force, German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States

European Participants

Franco Algieri; Associate Professor and Head, International Relations Department, Webster Vienna Private University

Noah Barkin; Senior Visiting Fellow, Asia Program, German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF)

Bernhard Bartsch; Senior Expert China & Asia Pacific, Bertelsmann Stiftung Reinhard Bütikofer, Member of the European Parliament (Greens/EFA)

Mathieu Duchâtel; Director, Asia Program, Institut Montaigne Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford & Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution

François Godement; Senior Advisor for Asia, Institut Montaigne

Martin Hála; Lecturer, Department of Sinology, Charles University & Director of Sinopsis

Benjamin Hartmann; Legal and Policy Officer, I.D.E.A., European Commission

Sebastian Heilmann; Professor Government and Political Economy of China, University of Trier

Mikko Huotari; Director, Mercator Institute of China Studies (MERICS)

Ivana Karásková; China Research Fellow, Association of International Affairs (Prague), Founding Director of MapInfluenCE, Founder and Head of China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe, CHOICE

Katrin Kinzelbach; Professor International Politics of Human Rights, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

Agatha Kratz; Associate Director, Rhodium Group (European Office)

Anika Laudien; Project Manager, Germany & Asia Program, Bertelsmann Stiftung

Franziska Luettge; Program Coordinator, Asia Program, German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF)

Rana Mitter; Professor of the History of Modern China & Director of the China Center, University of Oxford

Janka Oertel; Director, Asia Program, European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)

Malin Oud; Director (Stockholm office), Raoul Wallenberg Institute

Ana Palacio; Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain

Charles Parton; Senior Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)

Angela Stanzel; Research Associate, Asia Division, German Institute for International & Security Affairs (SWP)

Volker Stanzel; Fellow, German Institute for International & Security Affairs (SWP) and former German Ambassador to China and Japan

Sabine Stricker-Kellerer; Senior Partner, SSK Law

Ágnes Szunomár; Head, Research Group on Development Economics, Institute of World Economics & Associate Professor, Corvinus University, Hungary

Didi Kirsten Tatlow; Senior Fellow & Asia Program Director, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP)

Plamen Tonchev; Head of Asia Unit, Institute of International Economic Relations, Greece

Stephan Vopel; Director, Bertelsmann Stiftung

Jörg Wuttke; Vice President and Chief Representative, BASF China, President of European Chamber of Commerce in China

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