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CNN: Neither human rights concerns nor US disapproval could stop the EU-China investment agreement, US gets sidelined

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CNN: Neither human rights concerns nor US disapproval could stop the EU-China investment agreement, US gets sidelined

by James Griffiths, CNN
Updated 4:43 AM ET, Thu December 31, 2020


(CNN) In a year that has seen global perceptions of China plunge, Beijing scored a major diplomatic victory Wednesday with the finalizing of an investment agreement with the European Union -- in spite of criticism from the United States and outstanding concerns many in the bloc have over Beijing's worsening human rights record.

Ahead of the agreement, which will give European companies greater access to Chinese markets, a senior aide to US President-elect Joe Biden had urged EU leaders to wait and address shared concerns about Beijing with the incoming administration.

201231095658-eu-china-deal-video-1230-01-exlarge-169.jpg

Chinese President Xi Jinping and European Union leaders seen on a screen during a video conference to approve an investment pact between China and the European Union on December 30, 2020 in Brussels, Belgium.


That Washington's European allies plowed ahead casts doubt on Biden's future ability to build a coalition of like-minded countries to counter Beijing, particularly if the EU, the world's single-largest trading bloc, becomes even more closely tied to China's economy.

EU-China trade deal sidelines US
European leaders would hardly be the first to hold their noses over China's human rights record in favor of economic gains. Washington strongly supported Beijing's entrance into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2000, despite then US President Bill Clinton having previously described China's leaders as "butchers" over the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Under Trump, who has blown hot and cold on China, human rights have been prioritized in the past year, but took something of a backseat as a trade deal with Beijing looked likely. According to Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton, during talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019, the American leader told Xi to "go ahead with building the camps" in Xinjiang and said he didn't "want to get involved" in ongoing protests in Hong Kong.

Trump's recent campaign against China, ramped up as the coronavirus pandemic has caused chaos and misery in the US, failed to get much support from Europe. Biden is expected to keep up the pressure on Beijing, albeit with more restrained rhetoric than Trump, partly by leveraging allies to counterbalance China.

The EU said last year that it considers China to be a "strategic competitor" and a "systemic rival," reflecting a recent hardening of attitudes toward the country. Biden has gone even further, describing Xi earlier this year as a "thug" who doesn't have a "democratic ... bone in his body."

That the US could not influence the agreement this week -- with both Biden allies and members of the Trump administration criticizing the proposed deal -- shows how complicated an issue China has become, and how difficult building a transatlantic partnership to contain Beijing might be in practice, even without Trump's often inflammatory rhetoric.

"Leaders in both US political parties and across the US government are perplexed and stunned that the EU is moving towards a new investment treaty right on the eve of a new US administration," Matt Pottinger, Trump's deputy national security adviser and a strong China critic, said Wednesday. "Some European officials and commentators liked to claim that the Trump Administration was an impediment to even deeper transatlantic cooperation. Now it is plain to all that this isn't about President Trump. It's about key European officials. Look in the mirror."

 
Everyone knows China is unstoppable, EU just gives US some ally lip service. Allies are mostly in words, rarely in actions.
I remember a few months back everybody said Europe would demand us to pay compensation before trading. Lolol. And US would confiscate our USD$ bonds. I guess dogs are not barking anymore. 300k dead Muricans and all they do are just tariffs and sanctions..... Lolol

The Europeans could have waited but i guess they wanna show a big F U to US. Just like how the French starved the Britons into a trade deal. Lolol

Euro bashing by the Anglo media started as soon as we completed the deal. Euro is now the traitor to the white man apparently. Lol
 
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I remember a few months back everybody said Europe would demand us to pay compensation before trading. Lolol. And US would confiscate our USD$ bonds. I guess dogs are not barking anymore. 300k dead Muricans and all they do are just tariffs and sanctions..... Lolol
The fact is they pay billions upfront but still have to wait in long lines for PPE and other neccessaties from China during the pandemic, and now it's time for them to chip in the money to pay for Chinese vaccines.
 
The fact is they pay billions upfront but still have to wait in long lines for PPE and other neccessaties from China during the pandemic, and now it's time for them to chip in the money to pay for Chinese vaccines.
They won't use our safer vaccines, they gonna use GMO vaccines with serious side effects. It's muted form Anglo media, I read some from reuter and sputnik and it was reported in local US news. Its not gonna be in mainstream media. They know RNA is risky.
 
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