Updating the EU action plan on China: De-risk, engage, coordinate

As the EU is recalibrating it’s China strategy, this MERICS policy brief titled “Updating the EU action plan on China: De-risk, engage, coordinate” discusses options for the future. Our Brussels based analysts François Chimits, Francesca Ghiretti and Grzegorz Stec review the action points set out in the 2019 EU-China Strategic Outlook and they find that in the four years since the unveiling of the Strategic Outlook, Brussels has made significant progress in developing a range of effective policies. Yet the EU’s China policy needs recalibration to reflect changes in China and on the global stage.

To that end, the authors propose three baskets of policy action:

• De-risk: mitigate the EU’s strategic dependencies on and vulnerabilities to China
• Engage: establish a baseline for cooperation with China in areas of common interest
• Coordinate: increase synergy on China-related knowledge within the EU and among partner

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