Daniel S. Hamilton
The transatlantic partners are closer in their assessments of the China Challenge today than they were four years ago. When Donald Trump attended his first NATO summit, China was nothing more than an afterthought. NATO leaders now agree that Beijing challenges “our interests, security and values” and “present[s] systemic challenges to the rules-based international order.”
Yet transatlantic efforts to meet the China Challenge have proven ineffective. Neither party is prepared to match the money Beijing is throwing behind its own agenda. Neither has been willing or able to harness the full combined potential of their deeply integrated $8.7 trillion economy to ensure they remain global rule-makers rather than become rule-takers.
The transatlantic partners approach Beijing from different strategic positions, with different tools, and with different senses of urgency. Priorities are often mismatched. European countries remain wedded to global trade rules. US Democrats and Republicans alike are concerned that China has abused those rules and wants to weaken them.
The two sides have found it difficult to align their export controls and investment screening efforts. And while the United States has reduced its dependence on imports of Chinese manufactured goods over the past five years, the European Union (EU) has become more reliant on China. Key industrial sectors in countries like Germany, Spain, and Hungary are doubling down on China.
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