Europe, US continue to seek common ground on China, despite other policy differences

European Union leaders still want to collaborate with the United States on China policy – even as Washington’s envoys continue to slam the bloc’s digital laws.

The dynamic played out at a forum in Brussels on Tuesday, where American diplomats bashed Europe’s green, digital and economic policies, insisting that the EU would need to change if it wanted to stay in US President Donald Trump’s good graces.

“I’ve been told I can’t say deregulation because it makes everybody upset, but simplification. We’re going to need to do some simplification of these regulations,” US ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder said, in reference to the bloc’s digital laws.

“No president of either party, President Trump in particular, is going to tolerate a foreign government restricting the First Amendment, fundamental free speech, free expression, rights of US citizens, to an extent that the US government can’t even regulate those rights,” he told the Atlantic Council event.

Puzder, who took up his role last month, said the ratification of a tariff deal agreed in Scotland in July was his top priority, after which he listed China.

“There’s dealing with China, trying to make sure that we have a joint recognition between the EU and the United States as to the strategic and economic threat of the People’s Republic of China,” he said.

South China Morning Post