EU Ambassadors in Beijing criticize Belt & Road Initiative
April 24, 2018 Category Foreign trade, Weekly
(EU Ambassadors on a visit to the headquarters of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing in September 2017)
The European Union has criticized China’s Belt and Road Initiative as 27 out of the 28 EU ambassadors to China signed a document denouncing the project for hampering free trade and giving an advantage to Chinese companies. Only the Hungarian Ambassador refused to sign the document. The Europeans’ concerns may overshadow an upcoming summit between China and the EU, scheduled for July. The document said China was attempting to shape globalization to suit its own interests, and the Belt and Road Initiative is “pursuing domestic political goals like the reduction of surplus capacity, the creation of new export markets and safeguarding access to raw materials.”
“Whether originally intended by China or emerging as a, no doubt, welcome side-effect, China has been putting a wedge between some EU states, or between member states and the union,” said Jyrki Kallio, Senior Researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Cui Hongjian, European Affairs Expert at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), said the document was meant to show the EU has a common stance on China. “There has been a lot of discussion that the EU does not have a common policy towards China, and in particular the Belt and Road,” he said. “It is clear that EU countries are divided on Belt and Road, but I don’t think that this division is something we need to worry about. It’s a question of who wants to participate, and how deeply.”
Jan Weidenfeld, head of the European China Policy Unit at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, said the document reflected “a set of concerns that people have been expressing in various parts of Europe” after heavy Chinese investment had increased Beijing’s influence over some of the smaller and poorer countries. Much of China’s investment in southern and eastern parts of Europe has been in utilities and energy, or involves existing infrastructure projects, such as the Port of Piraeus in Greece, where Chinese state-owned firm COSCO Shipping had acquired a 51% stake, the South China Morning Post reports.
European Union and Italian authorities are investigating suspected wide-scale tax fraud by Chinese criminal gangs importing goods via Greece’s largest port, a trade gateway between China and Europe, officials said. The investigation at Piraeus port came as its majority stakeholder, COSCO Shipping, faced mounting concerns over a multibillion takeover bid that could see it acquire a container terminal in the U.S. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) confirmed it was working with Italy on the investigation into the suspected tax scams, but declined to give details. COSCO said it has “in its global operations consistently and strictly followed local and international laws, and persevered to operate legally and compliantly”
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