European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday said the EU's approach to relations with China will be "de-risking" rather than "decoupling," as she addressed a European Parliament's plenary session on EU-China relations.
"We will de-risk our economies, but we do not want to decouple," von der Leyen said, voicing bloc's "readiness" to build a "more balanced" and a "more stable" relationship with China.
Pointing to China's evolution from a "society of agriculture," into "an industrial giant and a clean tech leader," she urged for a "clear-eyed" assessment of the new reality.
She said China's "entirely different system" and "unique instruments at its disposal" enabling it to "play outside the rules," creates "strategic" and "systematic" risks for Europe.
"This, for instance, allows China to flood global markets with subsidized over capacity, not just to boost its own industries, but to choke international competition," von der Leyen explained.
Stressing that China has become a "formidable actor" in the global information and cyberspace and "welcoming" all Chinese voices on global issues, she vowed to be "vigilant" against any form of "influence operations" and "cyberattacks" in Europe, deeming them "unacceptable."
"I believe there's also an opportunity here to build a more meaningful partnership with China. But to move our relationship forward, we need to make real progress and find fair solutions on the issues where we have been deadlocked for far too long: predictability and reliability," von der Leyen added.
She outlined three priorities to focus on to work in their mutual interest: "rebalancing" economic relationship, "de-risking" and "advancing diplomacy on global issues."
"If our partnership is to move forward, we need a genuine rebalancing, fewer market distortions, less overcapacity exported from China and fair, reciprocal access for European business in China," von der Leyen said.
Pointing out how China started "flooding" global markets and "wiping out" competitors by investing early in many of the future technologies, she underlined that de-risking is "simply a matter of European independence."
"We're engaging with Beijing so that it loosens its export restrictions. Because, as I said at the outset, we do not believe in strategic decoupling, and this is not in our interest. I believe that for Europe, it would be inefficient and ineffective," she added.
The EU Commission president reiterated that they would keep working to de-risk, having learned how dependencies can become vulnerabilities — and how "inherently" technology, trade, and security are intertwined.
On China's alleged support to Russia in its war on Ukraine, she said they cannot accept the fact that China is "de-facto enabling Russia's war economy," and warned that its interaction in the conflict will be a "determining factor" for EU-China relations going forward.
"There is a lot we can do together if China is ready to work together in a spirit of predictability and reliability," she added.
