Back to the drawing board: EU revives faltering China de-risking plans

As it fights to survive in the new era of economic warfare, the European Union wants to turbo-boost efforts to de-risk its ties with China, using two new proposals.

Launched on Wednesday, the blueprints will combine to upgrade the bloc’s economic arsenal and unpick its heavy reliance on China for critical minerals, including rare earths.

The first, an economic security communication, will provide the EU with an “operating system” on which to manage its many trade, competition and economic weapons – that could be used to punch back against coercion, bullying or the weaponisation of dependencies.

Building on the bloc’s first economic security strategy launched 2½ years ago, it will seek to put long-running risk assessments, conducted by the European Commission and the 27 member states in sectors deemed critical, into action.

A new EU intelligence centre will track economic threats in real time – monitoring if China or others were trying to sabotage Europe’s efforts to reduce dependencies, and maintaining a blacklist of risky companies that should be blocked from EU contracts and funding.

The aim, a senior EU official said, was to forge a “culture of preparedness”, something the bloc has lacked throughout a bruising year.

South China Morning Post