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‘Naive’ Europe must snub China if it refuses market access, says ex-Nato chief
- EU engaged with China in the hope of it becoming more like Hong Kong, but Hong Kong has become more like China, Anders Fogh Rasmussen says
- Production should be moved to more ‘stable and reliable’ countries if China won’t reciprocate Europe’s market access, he argues
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China should “pay a price” if it continues to refuse European companies wider access to its market, a former Nato secretary general has said.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Anders Fogh Rasmussen brushed aside rhetoric about a “new Cold War” between the United States and China, saying it would not be “in anyone’s interests to start one in today’s highly interdependent world”.
But he called on Europe to prepare to take a stronger stance and move parts of its supply chains from China to “stable and reliable” alternatives if China failed to offer reciprocity for the European Union.
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“Europeans have been too naive for too long,” said Rasmussen, a former prime minister of Denmark who led Nato, the transatlantic security alliance, from 2009 to 2014.
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“We had all hoped that we could live harmoniously and that over time engaging with China would lead to it being more like Hong Kong. Unfortunately, under [Chinese President] Xi Jinping it is Hong Kong that has become more like China.”
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