EU economic security plan fails to find favor among skeptical bloc members

As a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed earlier this week, it is in the interest of both China and the European Union to properly handle their differences through dialogue and consultation on the basis of mutual respect. To that end, it is not conducive for the EU to take protectionist moves citing unfounded security concerns.

When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the Economic Security Strategy in June last year as part of the plan to bolster the EU's economic security through "de-risking" from "countries of concern", she wouldn't have expected the initiative would turn out to be a political hot potato more than one year later. Yet that is what it has become, as the majority of the bloc's member states are questioning the policy's viability.

The strategy, though it does not mention China, is widely believed to be part of Von der Leyen's efforts to align the bloc more closely with the United States and reduce economic reliance on China, which she considers a "systemic rival". The strategy proposes to further restrict foreign investment in the EU's key infrastructure and apply coordinated controls on exports to "rivals" of technologies in high-tech sectors such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence, among other measures aimed at strengthening the EU's economic security.