China’s New Policy on the European Union: A Toughening Line on Political Issues

Image courtesy of European External Action Service/Flickr. (CC BY-NC 2.0)

This article was originally published by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) on 14 January 2019.

China’s recent policy paper on the European Union shows that the country continues to recognize the EU as an important partner in many fields. A new, distressing element is that China has toughened its demands towards the EU to respect its core interests and to refrain from meddling in its internal affairs.