Opinion | Europe’s incoherent ‘China threat’ posture is a threat to itself
The China threat has landed in Brussels. A new European Union position paper accuses Beijing of amplifying security threats, posing “a critical long-term strategic challenge” and reviving “sphere-of-influence logic” to reshape the global order.
Beijing is cast as an enabler of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while its “assertive behaviour” in the South China Sea threatens European and Indo-Pacific security, stability and prosperity. The document, “Common Understanding: The Threats and Challenges We Face”, was approved by foreign ministers on July 13 among a long list of decisions.
The paper does not replace the policy adopted in 2019, when Brussels defined China simultaneously as partner, competitor and systemic rival. Instead, it places that formula beneath an overriding judgment: Beijing represents a long-term security challenge.
That label came a month after the same ministers had reaffirmed “de-risking, not decoupling” as EU policy towards China, alongside continued engagement with Beijing. More recently, China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and EU officials defined their relations as a “stable and balanced key trading partnership”.
Yet as of now, China’s industrial scale, technological ambitions, commercial leverage, control of critical raw materials, Russia partnership and Indo-Pacific conduct form a single threat assessment. In March, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas suggested that this position paper will underpin the forthcoming European Security Strategy, linking defence, energy and supply chains.
It will therefore shape the EU’s China policy on investment screening, export controls, procurement, industrial support, technology, trade restrictions and supply chain exposure. Measures presented as technical safeguards will rest on a political judgment: dependence on Beijing is both a commercial vulnerability and part of a wider security threat.