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Farewell France, bonjour Britain in EU

By Zeng Biao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-27 10:06

July 14 was the first day of the new European Parliament (EP), and it saw the first clash between Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National Party leader and member of EP, and Baroness Glenys Kinnock, Britain's minister for the European Union (EU).

The clash shows there still is a huge gap in British attitudes toward the EU. The diversity of the EU was evident not only in Britain, but across the continent during EP election in June. And the historically low voter turnout showed that Europeans had lost their interest in the EU – which could be one of the reasons why the right wing won the election.

The EU now faces a second Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon. The majority of Irish people voted "no" in the first referendum last year, reflecting their opposition to the EU constitution. And the EU will face a constitutional crisis if the referendum fails again.

This uncertainty within the EU is taking a toll on China, too, for it cannot find a united entity while dealing with the EU. Chinese-EU ties are no longer what they used to be, so to deal with the diversity inside the EU, Beijing has had to develop a buy-your-bill's strategy with European countries.

In such a situation China could hope to buy European goods at “wholesale prices”. But that is not to be, for China has to make individual deals with each EU member country, which makes the total cost of a product higher than its wholesale price.

Moreover, the case of French President Nicolas Sarkozy reflects the failure of the Chinese strategy. Since Beijing has had many friends among French leaders, such as Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterrand, and thinks the French in general love Chinese culture, Beijing has for long taken it for granted that its ties with France will never sour.

That feeling could have been instrumental in Sarkozy getting a warm welcome in China even when he was a relatively unknown identity in 1995. On his second visit in 2005, when was he out of Chirac's inner circle, he got to meet with President Hu Jintao – a rare honor. In 2008, China consolidated its friendship with France by buying Airbus shares and nuclear technologies. But that China still could not stop Sarkozy from playing his tricks on Tibet and putting Hong Kong on tax haven blacklist demonstrate Beijing's failure.

Across the English Channel, China-UK ties have developed rather rapidly and fruitfully since 1999, even though there have been no Chirac or Mitterrand in the United Kingdom. Chinese now constitute the largest international students' group in the UK because Britain is more attractive and recognizable for normal Chinese students.

Last October, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband recognized China’s sovereignty over Tibet announcing:"We regard Tibet as part of the People's Republic of China." The UK foreign office immediately published a memorandum of the UK and China: The framework of engagement in early 2009.

These could be the reasons why Chinese prefer to import British ideas in politics, finance and research and development, even though the global economic crisis has hurt UK's reputation in finance management.

The development of China-UK ties implies there is a possibility of the two countries cooperating in issues related to the EU. Britain is a pillar of the EU despite Euro-skepticism being common among Britons. Both the Conservative and the Labour parties share the common goal of casting British influence on the EU. The European spokesman's role made Britain a strong ally of the US during World War II and the Cold War. As the world entered the 21st century, Britain joined the US' War on Terrorism. Today, it is trying with the US and other countries to overcome global recession.

By deciding to pull out its troops from Iraq in two years, US President Barack Obama intends to defuse the tension between America and other countries. That could mean Britain could lose its weight in the Anglo-American special ties, and to retain that it must find a new point of interest to draw the US. Fighting global recession is one such. In fact, at the London G20 summit in April, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown showed the UK could still work with the US, but Obama seems to be switching his focus to other European countries gradually.

Sarkozy has been trying to steal the limelight within the EU. He is leading France back to NATO, and has made clear his intentions of becoming the EU leader, threatening Britain's role as EU spokesman. Soon Britain and France would become more of competitors than partners on the European, as well as the global stages. This is a big challenge for Brown, and he has to find firm ground to keep Britain spokesman's role.

Brown took the first initiative at the G20 summit, showing a friendly gesture toward China by extending a hand for long-term engagement. On its part, China reacted positively to his fiscal stimulus plan.

The UK needs China in the fight against recession, hence further cooperation on a wide range of issues can be expected. Nevertheless, China has to integrate Britain into its EU policy in order to end the dilemma of buy-your-bill's strategy.

Here, a new model may be worthy of consideration in China-EU ties. China should stop using its economic power to comfort each member country of the EU. What it should do instead is choose some potential candidates to help through issues related to the EU. France, obviously, is the other strong candidate. But today, the UK scores over it in more ways than one.

Britain's position as EU spokesman and its traditional Euro-skepticism give it enough space to maneuver through crises. They make Britain an ideal choice for China because its quest to find a united Europe now looks more like an illusion. It's time China put the bet on a qualified horse and tried to tame those that have gone wild.

(The author is Editor in Chief, TalkTone New Media, UK)