Thread by @MacaesBruno

It’s remarkable how the language in new EU strategy on China was copy pasted from German BDI
english.bdi.eu/publication/ne…

But this should also show you there is no shift. There is a new emphasis on old topics having to do with the “economic constitution”

All the EU is saying is that it must become more competitive and use a little more force in pushing China to open up. It’s not a new strategy. And it won’t work

We now have the Federation of German Industries shaping the EU’s political strategy on China. How could it work?

The change is this. Before the EU told China: You must open up in your own interest. Now it says: You must open up in our interest. The tone is less confident, but everything else is the same

I suspect the Commission changed “systemic competitor” to “systemic rival” to hide the BDI source a bit

Finally: it is extraordinarily ironic that a document mentioning China as a systemic rival on governance models ends up being about the ways in which the EU governance model must adapt and change to respond to China

Here is a top German official today: “We see that we cannot lean back anymore and let everything be decided by the free play of market forces”