China moves to smooth ties with EU

[gurusforum]

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China is ramping up efforts to smooth ties with the European Union in the wake of the U.S. elections, with a top Chinese official and state media maintaining that improved ties are in the interest of both Brussels and Beijing.

As countries worldwide try to anticipate what President-elect Donald Trump's victory might mean for U.S. foreign policy, analysts say the push by Beijing appears aimed at driving a wedge between the EU and the United States.

"Beijing is trying to exploit current uncertainty regarding the future of transatlantic relations to ensure that the EU distances itself from Washington's increasingly confrontational approach toward China, but it will be difficult [for Beijing] to accomplish [the task,]" said Alicja Bachulska, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"Europe is becoming increasingly aware of the negative impact of China's foreign and industrial policy on the single market and the security of NATO's Eastern flank," she told VOA in a written response.

On November 9, the deputy head of European affairs at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Cao Lei, said that because Trump's victory could be "the turning point of our times," the EU and China should repair divisions and improve bilateral relations.

"No one wants to return to the law of the jungle, no one wants to go back to the era of confrontation and the Cold War, and no one wants to return to unilateral hegemony. This is the backdrop that China-EU relations are facing," he said at the launch of the China Think-Tank Network on Europe at Beijing Foreign Studies University.