Lithuania was the only member of the European Union to openly support President Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, said on Twitter that he had “opened the door much wider to Taiwan”. Credit… Janis Laizans/Reuters
BRUSSELS — Europe is increasingly wary of China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, repression in Hong Kong, widespread censorship and widespread social controls, let alone its technological advances, industrial espionage and rhetoric aggressive
The Europeans are also none too happy about the “borderless” partnership that China and Russia proclaimed shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
But Europe does not support Taiwan’s independence and recognizes Beijing as the seat of Chinese power.
And what matters most to the Europeans is keeping trade open with China and its huge market, while joining Washington in trying to prevent any military aggression against Taiwan. No European country, however pro-democracy, has indicated much willingness to go halfway around the world to help defend Taiwan militarily, as President Biden has sometimes vowed to do (before the White House corrects him).
Thus, European leaders have been mostly silent about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan.
“This is not their fight, this is America’s fight, and the Biden administration has been clear over the last year and a half that the Indo-Pacific is their priority,” said Philippe Le Corre, a scholar of China at Harvard University. “Taiwan was quite calm, and most Europeans think the trip was a mistake,” he added, adding that “there is a war in Europe.”
If Europe is wary of new investments in China, Taiwan is seen as a US problem, as is the larger Pacific, where Europe has few military assets.
“The United States’ enduring support for Taiwan has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with geopolitics and credibility,” said Gérard Araud, the former French ambassador to both the United States and the United Nations.
The only country in the European Union that has openly supported the visit of Ms. Pelosi has been Lithuania. In a Twitter message, his foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said that now that “Speaker Pelosi has opened the door much wider to Taiwan, I am sure that other defenders of freedom and democracy will come very soon”.
May be. But Lithuania and Beijing are in an ugly dispute over Taiwan; Vilnius allowed Taiwan’s new unofficial embassy to use the word Taiwan in its name, and Beijing retaliated with trade restrictions. Other European Union countries were upset that Lithuania, without consulting them, had created what they considered an unnecessary problem.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has been an outspoken critic of China’s domestic policies and human rights violations. Without endorsing Pelosi’s trip, Ms. Baerbock warned China of escalating tensions with Taiwan.
“We do not accept when international law is broken and a powerful neighbor attacks its smaller neighbor in violation of international law, and this of course also applies to China,” he told Der Spiegel magazine before the visit . “In light of Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, it is important to make clear that the international community does not accept this behavior.”
But Europeans, and German businessmen, know that China and the European Union are great partners in two-way trade.
Still, growing criticism of China has made Europe more interested in the fate of Taiwan, which, like Ukraine, is another small democracy facing a nuclear-armed authoritarian.
In October last year, Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, launched a charm offensive in Europe, stopping in Brussels to meet informally with European Union lawmakers. The European Parliament overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling for stronger ties with Taiwan, which it described as a “democratic partner and ally in the Indo-Pacific”.
Parliament then sent its first formal delegation to visit the island, defying Beijing’s threats of retaliation and its imposition of sanctions on some prominent lawmakers.
But Parliament is largely powerless in foreign policy and does not speak for the European Commission, let alone the member states.
Britain, no longer a member of the European Union, has been more outspoken in its criticism of China than other European countries, and a visit to Taiwan by the House of Commons foreign affairs committee was during a lot of time on the cards.
However, the British trip would come in November or December, after the Communist Party congress. Before that, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, wants to project strength to ensure he gets another term. It’s time for Ms. Pelosi that many analysts believe has angered Mr. Xi and prompted such a forceful response.