The US and the European Union continue to struggle to reach an agreement on how to limit China's technological rise and coercive trade practices, despite signing on to the need to "de-risk" their relationship with Beijing. During a high-level meeting in Sweden, senior US officials had hoped the EU would agree to jointly pursue a new mechanism to screen outbound investments to places like China. However, the joint document that emerged from the meeting largely avoided mentioning China, and instead, focused on the need for both parties not to seek confrontation or a Cold War. While the US did not receive a more ambitious approach from Brussels on mechanisms to limit China's technological development, both sides agreed on plans for clean-tech sectors and other trade facilitation measures, such as a common international standard for megawatt charging stations for electric heavy trucks.
Despite the EU's attempt to avoid singling out China in the formal conclusions of the meeting, China remained the backdrop of many private discussions. US officials have adopted the EU's approach toward China that seeks to "de-risk" but not "de-couple" from China. The EU is expected to complete its own risk assessment next month about some of the challenges posed by China's rise as part of a new economic security strategy to identify what kind of mechanisms may be needed to address those risks.
While the EU has long had a different approach to addressing China that does not point the finger at Beijing, this tactic has had mixed results. For example, while the US specifically banned technology from China's Huawei Technologies Co. in its telecom infrastructure, the EU proposed a vaguer 5G toolbox that emphasized getting rid of so-called high-risk vendors. Nevertheless, both sides are aware of the importance of not being left behind by China's technological advances and are trying to work together to ensure that their strategies are aligned and effective.