HK can play a role in promoting a constructive China strategy in EU

US President-elect Joe Biden said in an interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on Dec 2 that the best China strategy is the one that America and every single one of its allies or at least "our past allies" agree on. He added that he would try and bring all allies on the same page as the US in the first few weeks of his term in office as one of his strategic priorities regarding China.

Not long before Biden made those comments, French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated that the European Union (EU) must have its own independent global strategy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also insisted at a recent Parliament hearing, in response to some legislators' demand for a tougher attitude toward China, that Germany must keep a balance between values and interests.

As such, the international community will no doubt watch closely how Biden will coordinate different China strategies of the US and EU.

There is a slight difference between Macron's and Merkel's comments on EU and Germany's global strategies. Macron still believes the EU should have its own armed forces that are somewhat different from NATO, indicating the desire to keep a distance from the US. As for China relations, however, Germany, France and basically all other EU member states share a similar disapproval of China's social system and values but are willing to maintain or even expand trade with China.

For almost 40 years after establishing diplomatic relations with China, the US maintained a balance between values and national interests. In 1984, then US President Ronald Reagan, in a lengthy speech at Fudan University in Shanghai during his China visit, spoke highly of multiple meetings between leaders of the two countries in the previous 12 years, when the two countries were able to understand each other better and learned to look at world affairs from each other's perspective despite differences between them on many issues. He also stressed in that speech that the two countries should try and understand each other even better.

The US adjusted its China strategy 41 years after the two countries established diplomatic relations, from maintaining contact more than confrontation to the other way around, in a bid to contain China's development. The strategic adjustment was not made because China's social system and value set had changed since 40 years ago or because the US' value set did, but because of China's rise as it became the second largest economy in the world and kept getting closer development-wise. Now China is regarded as America's biggest threat and challenge by both the Democratic and Republican parties in terms of values and national interests.

That is why it is impossible for Biden to coordinate the US-China strategy with the EU's for tangible results even if he wants to. The EU will adhere to the same value set the US does, as shown in identical interference in China's Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong affairs. However, it will not wage a full-on trade war against China as the US is doing, because it is self-destructive. In the near term, the EU needs China's help to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve economic recovery. In the medium and long term, the EU cannot afford to lose the largest single market in the world that is China's mainland and must maintain its economic and trade partnership with the most populous country in the world today.

Britain has left the EU but remains a loyal member of the "five-eye alliance" syndicate led by the US, with Canada, Australia and New Zealand tagging along. London will continue marching to the beat of Washington's drum in a tightly coordinated attempt to mess up Hong Kong because it is slowly losing ground in the city in terms of ensuring political influence and geostrategic interests.

The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) holds direct jurisdiction over Hong Kong-related foreign affairs according to the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the PRC. The HKSAR is authorized by the Basic Law to maintain and develop economic and trade ties with foreign countries and regional entities as well as establishing non-government overseas contacts. After Biden takes office as US president, the HKSAR government and Hong Kong society should continue following the central authorities in fighting against meddling by the US and UK however necessary while playing its unique role of a proactive contributor to the national development strategy. It is in its best interest to help persuade the EU not to pursue a China strategy that will only benefit the US at its own expense in the end.

The US is the only western power to have initiated economic sanctions against the HKSAR so far. Even the UK has not followed suit just yet. Although Hong Kong's trade with those countries, in terms of total value, is tiny compared with that of their trade with China, the HKSAR can and should contribute to the country's constructive ties with those western countries by playing its unique role well in the world economy.

Also, the HKSAR government and Hong Kong society as a whole should expand non-government exchanges with those western societies in the spirit of peaceful coexistence among different social systems. As long as the EU's China strategy is aimed at achieving a reasonable balance between western values and regional interests, it must ensure peaceful coexistence with China including Hong Kong in the first place. Hong Kong's value set is heavily influenced by western values, which make it easier for the city to communicate with the EU and other western societies. Hong Kong's value set as we know it originated in Europe and has coexisted with the Chinese roots of local society for more than 180 years, proving different cultures and civilizations can coexist peacefully, too.

The author is a senior research fellow of China Everbright Holdings.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.