Europe is at war and American hawks are busy. The Atlantic Council’s Matthew Kroenig argued that "the most consequential strategic question of the - Doug Bandow for Antiwar.com Original
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with then-US Vice President Joe Biden in 2013. REUTERS/Lintao Zhang/Pool/File Photo
Chinese negotiators surprised their European Union counterparts this week with key market-access concessions following long months of intransigence that could allow the two parties to reach an agreement on a historic investment deal by year’s end.
Though EU officials haven’t yet revealed the details, one senior EU diplomat said the agreement goes beyond anything Beijing has offered any foreign partner previously, both in the level of market access and legal and other guarantees.
EU officials aren’t naïve about the deal’s historic timing or political significance. It would come shortly after Americans elected Joe Biden in early November, following a campaign during which he pledged to rally allies in Europe and Asia to work in common cause to counteract the unfair practices of China’s authoritarian capitalist system.