EU needs better understanding of China to carve out ‘own space’, says ex-Spanish foreign minister
- Arancha González, speaking on a visit to China, says one of the difficulties the bloc faces is ‘we don’t have enough people that understand how China operates’
- She says the EU is trying to craft its own position amid the ongoing competition between Beijing and Washington
The European Union wants to establish its “own space” in dealing with both Beijing and Washington, according to former Spanish foreign minister Arancha González, who said the bloc needs to develop a better understanding of China.
“And of course, it wants to have a functional relationship with China that in the end is win-win. I think in Europe we are pretty clear that China is an inescapable partner in many areas,” González said in an interview with South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.
“Europe has an alliance with the US,” she said. “[But] we don’t have to ask for permission or be ashamed of pursuing open strategic autonomy. I think it fits well with the world that is today,” said González, who served under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez from 2020 to 2021. She is currently the dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at the French university Sciences Po.
González, who is on a working visit to China for the International Import Expo in Shanghai and to promote academic exchanges between Sciences Po and Chinese institutions, said: “We are more acutely conscious of the risk today given what’s happened to Europe.
“I do think that part of the difficulties we have today is that we do not have, at least in Europe, in my view, enough people that understand how China operates.