Chessboard or Player? The EU Role in US-China Competition

Every year, Körber-Stiftung publishes the “Berlin Pulse,” a project that contrasts perspectives on German foreign policy by high-ranking international authors with current German public opinion based on representative surveys. This year’s edition contains a whole chapter on Germany’s role in the Asia-Pacific, with contributions from analysts around the globe. This interview with Thorsten Benner, Co-Founder and Director of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin and Torrey Taussig, Research Director for Transatlantic Relations 2021 at the Harvard Kennedy School, first appeared in 2019/20 edition of The Berlin Pulse.

Körber-Stiftung: Brussels and the U.S. share a number of grievances vis-à-vis China, but disagree on the means. How do both parties see each other’s role and their respective relations with China?

Taussig: The United States would like to have Europe on its side as it intensifies competition with China. There is no doubt that getting Europe on board with certain economic and technological measures would help the U.S. to build greater leverage over China. However, European countries see the U.S. approach toward China as too bellicose. For example, European countries have been unwilling to engage in the U.S.-China trade war or to ban Chinese technology company Huawei from developing European 5G networks.

Benner: It is slowly but surely dawning on Europeans that the rivalry between the U.S. and China will be the defining geopolitical challenge of this century. Rather than becoming a chessboard for great power games, Europe must become a player in our own right, with its own strategy. As things stand, it is far from clear whether Europe has the will, the capacity, or the cohesion to do so.