On July 24, the President of the European Council, Costa, and the President of the European Commission, von der Leyen, visited China.

The day before the two EU leaders' visit to China, an article written by Alexander Gabuev (Chinese name Chen Hanshi), Director of the Russia and Eurasia Center at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the United States, published in the Financial Times attracted considerable attention from scholars and media people who are concerned about Sino-European relations.

In this article, Gabuev directly pointed out a major mistake that the EU had previously made when dealing with China: not understanding China's practical concerns and interests, but only emphasizing their own needs.

In the first paragraph of the article, Gabuev poured cold water on von der Leyen. He said that although von der Leyen wanted to keep Beijing away from Moscow to force Russia to take the negotiations with Ukraine more seriously, this approach of pressuring Beijing has not changed its position over the past three years and is unlikely to work now.

"China will not abandon Russia," he wrote.

Then, Gabuev began to list the important factors in China-Russia relations that are not only real but also obvious to China, but have long been ignored by the EU. He first mentioned a practical concern for China's security, which is that China does not want the large nuclear-armed country to the north to experience any turmoil, nor does it want the result of the turmoil to be Russia turning towards the West and moving away from China.

"That is why attempts by the West to pressure China into abandoning Russia have not worked, because the West has not provided a solution that can end the war and allow the Russian regime to continue," Gabuev said.

More importantly, in Gabuev's view, instead of considering China's concerns, the EU took an extremely radical stance, not only demanding that the Russia-Ukraine border return to its state in 1991, but also demanding the trial of some Russian officials. Gabuev believes that such actions by the EU obviously do not make China feel the sincerity of the EU's desire to resolve the issue through negotiations with Russia.

Secondly, Gabuev pointed out from the perspective of practical interests that China clearly knows that even if it pressures Russia as requested by the EU, the EU will not give China any actual benefits. After all, the EU itself considers getting too close to China economically as a "risk" and is pushing forward its "de-risking" strategy, while the US is also increasing restrictions on China in technology.

Gabuev also specifically mentioned an example he thinks will make China see the hypocrisy of the West and the US, namely that despite their constant public attacks on China's relationship with Russia, they remain remarkably silent about India, a major country that is buying a large amount of Russian oil.

Therefore, Gabuev believes that as the Ukraine conflict enters its fourth year, the Western hope for a complete defeat of Russia has become impossible, and the EU should move forward with China in an "open and pragmatic" manner. He mentioned two points where both sides have consensus: one is that both sides recognize that Ukraine should continue to exist as an independent country, and the other is that both sides do not want nuclear weapons to appear on the battlefield. He believes that the EU should seize the opportunities for cooperation with China brought by these consensuses.

Gao Lei

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7530662000427270695/

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