Cultural Clash or Powerful Pact? Motives Behind the EU-China Investment Deal
15.Apr.2021 9:00 AM .
7 min read
Furiously criticizing the President of the Czech Senate for visiting Taiwan. Fiercely castigating the organizers of a prestigious international trade forum for not banning European executives that denounced the Chinese government. Frantically condemning the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a diplomatic visit that an Estonian member of the European Parliament made. The list goes on. Almost every month, European commentators cite another instance that supposedly demonstrates how little Chinese officials seem to understand the liberal, democratic values of the European Union and its member states. As several of them have concluded, “Moments like these have shown that China doesn’t understand the EU at all.” Simultaneously, negative views of China have now reached the highest point since the beginning of the century in numerous European countries. According to a regular poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, the percentage of German respondents having an unfavorable view of China has increased from 33 percent in 2006 to 71 percent in 2020.