EU aims to lessen reliance on China

(MENAFN) Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union Commission, has urged for reducing the European Union's reliance on China for technology and raw materials, warning that otherwise, given the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, it would find itself in a similar scenario with Russian energy supplies. The senior official made the comments on Friday when speaking with Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, at a joint news conference.

Von der Leyen cautioned that the growing Moscow-Beijing alliance is going to have an impact on the European Union's relations with China since Beijing has been pursuing " dominance " in East Asia and expanding its "global influence."

She also mentioned, “at the same time, we have been witnessing, as you will recall, in February, the so-called no-limits partnership between Russia and China, right before the invasion in Ukraine. These developments will affect the EU-China relationship.”

Von der Leyen cited the European Union's continuing economic issues in saying that the group must be cautious about becoming "dependent" on China in any way, particularly with regard to its supply of raw materials and technologies.

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