The European Union and Communist China are on the verge of a “major investment deal,” European officials disclosed.
“The European Commission, the EU executive, had said before Christmas that the draft of the “political agreement” was “95 percent ready” and just needed the capitals’ green light,” the French news agency AFP confirmed Monday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been using her clout in the EU to driving through the deal with Beijing, media reports confirm.
“Germany, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency until Thursday and has substantial corporate interests in China, has pressed hard to meet the deadline,” the British newspaper Financial Times reported Monday.
The EU-China business investment deal, feted by the European media as a “landmark” pact, opens the Chinese manufacturing sector to European players and gives China access to the EU’s energy sector.
Poland was perhaps the only member state to raise concerns about the Merkel-backed fast-track negotiations, opening Europe’s nuclear infrastructure to Communist China.
“Poland urged the EU not to rush things and to cooperate more with Washington,” Politico reported last week.
Reuters, on Monday, reported the EU’s final touches to a deal:
China and the European Union are likely to clinch a deal this week that would give EU firms better access to the Chinese market, improve competition conditions and protect EU investment in China, European officials said on Monday.Talks on the investment deal began in 2014, but were stuck for years as the EU said China was failing to make good on promises to lift curbs on EU investment despite a pledge to open up the world’s second largest economy.But tensions in trade relations between the United States and China may have helped change the Chinese position and bring about a deal between Beijing and Brussels, officials said.“The talks are about to be concluded. It’s looking good. There are only some minor details left which need to be hammered out,” an EU official with knowledge of the talks told Reuters.“As things stand now, the political agreement between the EU and China will be sealed on Wednesday.”
The agreement could pose a serious security threat to the West. As part of the deal, Beijing reportedly demanded access to the European nuclear energy sector.
“China wants to invest in European nuclear power plants and use Chinese technology in this area,” German business weekly Die Wirtschaftswoche confirmed this week.
The EU is opening up to China when U.S. President Donald Trump is raising the alarm about the Communist regime using its commercial clout in the West to pursue its military and geostrategic goals.
Beijing is “increasingly exploiting United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernization of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses,” President Trump said in an executive order signed last month.
The Trump administration placed a ban on more than 60 Chinese military-linked companies from doing business with U.S. players. The list includes some big Chinese multinationals in the technology and innovation sector.
On Monday, the U.S. Treasury extended the investment ban to “any subsidiary of a Communist Chinese military company.” According to the announcement, the Defence or Treasury secretaries have the power to decide if “an entity, including a subsidiary” is a “communist Chinese military company operating directly or indirectly in the US,” thus subjecting it to an investment ban.
Secretary Pompeo warns of China’s threat to U.S. universities and tech institutions
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