The Effect Of “Sovereign Europe” Strategy on The Economic and Trade Relation Between China And EU

Abstract

China and the EU are powerful international actors that play an essential role in the current international society. Economic and trade cooperation between China and the EU is a significant aspect of China-EU cooperation. However, China-EU relations have been facing several challenges since 2019. The concept of ‘sovereign Europe’ was implemented in 2020, in which the EU aims to gain ‘autonomy’ and ‘independence’. By using secondary data on China’s total trade value between 2019 and 2023, it is found that the total trade value between China and the EU shows an increasing trend before the end of 2021, apart from a decrease in the first half year of 2020, and starts to decrease since 2022. These trends are shown in several European countries, including France, Germany, and Spain. However, European countries such as Sweden and Estonia show a different trend. These trends show that the efforts to establish a ‘sovereign Europe’ did not cause the decline of China-EU economic cooperation until 2022 due to interdependence and the EU’s need to cooperate with China in combating the US’s influences in defense and finance. However, after 2022, the Russia-Ukraine conflict increases the EU’s concerns about geopolitical tension and, thus, views China more as a ‘threat’. As a result, the decline of the China-EU economic relation is likely due to the combined effect of building a ‘sovereign Europe’ and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.