Despite Joe Biden’s election to the presidency in November 2020, European leaders—particularly German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron—have been determined to chart an independent relationship with China. For example, just three weeks before Biden’s inauguration, European negotiators announced the conclusion of a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) with China, which would significantly expand market access between two of the world’s largest economies.Biden has made public assurances that he has no problem with Europe pursuing “strategic autonomy.” But his diplomatic team has been privately working to pull Europe back into the fold by refocusing attention on China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang. European leaders would like to artfully evade this conversation while they work to lock in reciprocal technology and investment deals with Beijing. But Beijing is playing right into Biden’s hands, rallying the European public against an accommodative foreign policy.
Indeed, this week was a key turning point in Chinese–European relations. On March 22, the European Union sanctioned China over human rights abuses (this time over its treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang) for the first time since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. It was a slap on the wrist, not a substantial blow, with travel bans and asset freezes affecting only four individuals and one corporate entity. But China has responded that it will “not back down.”
