Navigating Uncertainty The Future of EUChina Relations Dr Mikko Huotari

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EAI Distinguished Public Lecture on Zoom • Organised by East Asian Institute (EAI), National University of Singapore • 0:00:00 • 0:00:22 - Introduction by Prof Bert Hofman • 0:02:53 - Lecture by Dr Mikko Huotari • 0:39:58 - Q A • Topic: • Navigating Uncertainty: The Future of EU-China Relations • Speaker: • Dr Mikko Huotari • Executive Director, Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) • Date/Time: • Thursday, 25 May 2023 • 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm (Singapore Time) • Abstract: • Europe’s China policy is in flux. The EU and China have a deep and long-standing relationship. Some EU members were among the first countries in the world to recognise the People’s Republic of China, and since China resumed its membership of the UN in 1972, relationships have rapidly expanded. Economic relationships have intensified after China joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001. China is now the EU’s largest trading partner (third largest export market) and European companies are among the largest foreign investors in China. In recent years, while economic relationships have continued to deepen, political tensions have grown. In its 2019 “Strategic Outlook on China”, the EU considers China simultaneously, in different policy areas, a cooperation partner, a negotiating partner with whom the EU needs to find a balance of interests, an economic competitor and a systemic rival promoting alternative models of governance. Since then, the EU has not only taken measures to develop its policy “toolbox” to deal with some of the (economic) challenges posed by China. A Comprehensive Agreement on Investment was put on hold amidst the imposition of sanctions on both sides. China’s perceived Russia-leaning stance, despite the invasion of Ukraine, has further increased tensions. While bilateral diplomatic and business interactions have deepened again after the 20th Party Congress and the end of Zero-COVID policy in China, uncertainty over the trajectory of EU-China policy has increased. Against this backdrop, EU Commission President Von der Leyen’s recent China speech not only took a stronger stance on various aspects of the relationship but also concluded that de-risking rather than decoupling was the way forward. Considering this, how will the EU’s China policy likely evolve? What will “de-risking” mean for the economic, diplomatic and other relations between EU and China? What balance will the EU strike between cooperation, competition and rivalry with China? These and other questions will be discussed in Dr Huotari’s lecture. • About the Speaker: • Mikko Huotari is the Executive Director of MERICS. His research focuses on China’s political and economic development, foreign policy, China-Europe relations, as well as global (economic) governance and competition. He has published on China’s rise as a financial power, trade and investment relations with Europe as well as on geopolitical shifts related to China’s emergence as a global security actor. Huotari studied in Freiburg, Nanjing and Shanghai. He holds a PhD from Freiburg University and was a guest scholar at the University of California in San Diego in 2017/2018. In 2019, Mikko was appointed as one of 15 German representatives to the German-Chinese Dialogue Forum. • About the Moderator: • Prof Bert Hofman, a Dutch national, is Director of the East Asian Institute at NUS and Professor of Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Before joining NUS, he was with the World Bank for 27 years, 22 of which in Asia, and 12 of which on China. Prof Hofman was the World Bank Country Director for China 2014-2019, the Country Economist 2004-2008, and the Chief Economist for the World Bank in the East Asia and Pacific region 2011-2014. He also worked on Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea and Mongolia. Before joining the World Bank, Prof Hofman worked at the Kiel Institute of World Economics, The OECD and NMB Bank (Now ING). He has extensive experience in advising governments around the region on a wide range of development issues, and published on fiscal policy, debt issues, and China’s and Indonesia’s recent economic history. • --------------------- • Please subscribe to our emailing lists at https://tiny.cc/eai-emailing and • YouTube channel at / eastasianinstitutenus . Thank you.

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