[Analytics] Chinese PM Li Keqiang insists supports united EU amid ‘divide and rule’ fears

‘We support European integration’, he writes ahead of trip to Brussels, after criticism of China’s dealings with individual EU states. The facts suggest otherwise, an EU source says, while another says EC President Jean-Claude Juncker will ask China to speed up openness to European firms. Stuart Lau specially for the South China Morning Post.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has sought to quell fears that Beijing is causing divisions between European Union member countries, stressing China’s support for a “united” Europe a day before his annual meeting with EU leaders.

It comes as Croatia – which Li will visit on the second leg of his European tour later this week – prepares to sign a memorandum of understanding with Chinese telecoms company Huawei.

European diplomats in Brussels have told the South China Morning Post they expect Li to focus on the same message about EU unity on Tuesday when he meets European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk.

There has been heightened concern within the EU that China is using “divide and rule” tactics among member states.

“We emphatically support the European integration process in the hope of a united and prosperous Europe,” Li wrote in the German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

He said Beijing’s close cooperation with eastern European states – where an increasing amount of Chinese investment has been directed – would be “advantageous for a balanced development within the EU”.

An EU source said China “has always made the same comment” but “the facts presented themselves differently”.

Another source said Juncker would ask Li to speed up China’s openness to European companies, in return for continued support for investments in Europe under Beijing’s transcontinental infrastructure strategy, the “Belt and Road Initiative”.

European criticism of China’s dealings with individual EU member states has been stepped up after it signed a memorandum on the initiative with Italy, to the dismay of France and Germany as well as the United States.

French President Emmanuel Macron last month called for an end to European “naivety” in how it handles China, while Juncker has said that some EU countries have failed to condemn China over human rights violations.

After the Brussels trip, Li will travel to the coastal Croatian city of Dubrovnik for a summit involving China and central and eastern European countries, also known as the “16+1” summit.
While in the Balkan state, Li is expected to witness the memorandum about cooperation between Huawei and the Croatian Central State Office for the Development of Digital Society.

Another deal being closely watched is a memorandum between Croatian Railway Infrastructure and China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group on the joint establishment of an intermodal transport corridor with a special emphasis on the Mediterranean corridor, through which China hopes to shorten the time needed to transport goods between Central Europe and Mediterranean ports.

Italy and Greece have been attracting Chinese investments in their ports, with the Greek port of Piraeus – taken over by China’s Cosco group in 2016 – soon to be the busiest port in the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, the parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina last week granted consent for a 614 million euro loan for an energy project which involves China.

An EU spokesman said there were “concerns over the socioeconomic and financial effects some of China’s investments can have” in the western Balkans. “There is the risk of macroeconomic imbalances and debt dependency,” he added.