The European Union's foreign policy chief cautioned member states against allowing China to take advantage of diplomatic divisions between them in order to impose their 'state-centric' stance.
Borrell expressed his concern that the communist Beijing government has repeatedly made sure to"tell the world" about the aid they've provided to other countries, while the EU has avoided politicization of their own pandemic efforts.
"The change in the EU's relations with China has accelerated in different phases since the outbreak of Covid-19," Borrell wrote in the syndicated opinion piece."When the hospitals in China were overloaded, the EU provided extensive support without making a fuss about it. Later, when Europe became the epicenter of the pandemic, China sent medical equipment on a large scale and made the world aware of it.
"The key point is that we should support each other and show international solidarity -- and the European Union has always shown how committed it is here -- but that we should avoid political capital from such help to beat," he continued. In April, China sought to block a European Union report that alleged Beijing was purposefully spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak in order to push blame away from their role in allowing COVID-19 to spreak outside its borders. As Reuters, Chinese officials were"very angry" that EU appeared to be appeasing Washington by echoing Trump's criticisms of the Chinese government.
Borrell's comments were published the same day that Chinese President Xi Jinping held a telephone conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in which the Chinese leader affirmed they"support the United Nations and World Health Organization in fighting the pandemic." Xi told the EU member state leader the Chinese government stands"ready to work with all countries" to control the spread of COVID-19.
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