Consistency of the EU’s decisions on China: An analysis of cooperation and sanctions

Abstract

This thesis analyses the EU’s foreign policy on China and aims to explain why the EU, which repeatedly underlines foreign policy coherence in its main treaties, made very different decisions in a short time, including ones that seem to undermine each other. It examines the logic behind the decisions, the key actors involved in the process, and how these actors influenced the shaping of the EU’s decisions. To analyse this data, it makes an innovative synthesis by combining the concept of consistency with Europeanisation theory.
Since its foundation, enhancing foreign policy coherence has always been an objective for the EU, and it has made several structural adjustments to harmonise the foreign policy of its member states. However, the extent to which the EU has achieved this goal remains a contested issue, as can be seen in its decisions regarding China, which was conceptualised as a strategic partner in the early 2000s, but, began to be also defined as a competitor and rival in the late 2010s. This thesis particularly focuses on the cases of the conclusion of the CAI and sanctions imposed due to human rights violations in Xinjiang. It questions the reasons the EU, having just concluded its largest investment deal to date with China, made a decision that jeopardised the deal, resulting in the freezing of the agreement. To answer this, the thesis compares the long-term stances, discourses, and initiatives of a sample of key EU actors influencing foreign policy in terms of vertical and horizontal consistency. It argues that, in dealing with a rising challenge like China, EU member states and institutions were involved in different phases of cooperation and criticism, which impacted the influence they exerted in EU decision-making, and that the simultaneous success of two different logics in influencing the EU causes the seeming inconsistency.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Kamil Zwolski: orcid.org/0000-0001-6043-8790

ORCID for John Glenn: orcid.org/0000-0001-9694-8282

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