EU Strategic Autonomy And The Development Of Sino-European Relations

The EU’s global strategic concept has undergone a transformation from"European sovereignty" to "strategic autonomy" and has become the mainstream policy discourse and long-term strategic objective of the EU.In order to maintain the EU’s international status,strengthen its internal solidarity and address the real challenges it faces,the EU has accelerated the pace of its strategic autonomy and broadened its areas of strategic autonomy.The core areas of the EU’s strategic autonomy includes defence autonomy,economic autonomy,energy autonomy and digital autonomy.In the process of realising its strategic autonomy,the EU will inevitably be accompanied by a series of adjustments to its foreign policy,including its policy towards China,which will bring certain opportunities and challenges to China-EU relations.On the one hand,the EU’s strategic autonomy is in line with China’s expectations for a multipolar world,and is also conducive to enhancing the independence and autonomy of the EU’s policies towards China in the economic,digital and energy fields,and to a certain extent promoting bilateral cooperation between China and the EU.On the other hand,under the concept of strategic autonomy,the EU’s protection of economic sovereignty,its emphasis on ideology and its geopolitical ambitions may also pose certain practical challenges for China-EU relations.The EU’s strategic autonomy has undoubtedly further deepened the"competition-combination" dynamic in Sino-European relations.In the future,it will be an important task for China’s diplomatic career to repeatedly think about how to establish good diplomatic relations with a Europe that has a higher degree of autonomy and sovereign thinking.Firstly,China and Europe should reposition their relations at the consciousness,institutional and economic levels,breaking the old pattern of ’US-led and European-Fellow’.Secondly,China and Europe can rely on the"Belt and Road" to achieve strategic docking,energy cooperation and the third market cooperation to promote further development of China-EU cooperation.Finally,the two sides should manage their differences and strengthen practical cooperation in the core areas of the EU’s strategic autonomy,such as the economic,digital and energy sectors,in order to promote the quality development of bilateral relations between China and Europe.Nowadays,the war between Russia and Ukraine is dragging on and the competition between China and the US is becoming more and more fierce.The strategic importance of Sino-EU relations has increased significantly in the context of the unprecedented changes of the past century.The pursuit of the EU’s strategic autonomy will inevitably lead to changes in the world landscape.Therefore,China’s timely development of a new strategic thinking towards Europe and the exploration of a more practical diplomatic path will become a "stabilizer" and"lubricant" for the bilateral strategic relations.