Introduction

One of the most important current issues in the twenty first century is the rise of the Chinese economyChinese economy and its impact on Europe and the world. The focus of this conceptual descriptive pivot provides an overview of the EU-27EU-27 (excluding UK) economic relations with China as one of the two largest economic hegemonies in the world. The EU is the world’s largest trader of industrial goods and services and ranks first in both inward and outward international investments. Apart from the already extensive Sino-EU tradeSino-EU trade and investment relations, there have also recently been increasingly more connections in the areas of financial sector and ecological development. In light of increasing geopolitical tensions with China, the EU is increasingly forced to navigate between scenarios of multilateralism, transatlantic alliance, and intensifying cooperation with China, which has created an increasing balancing act. As the Sino-US trade and especially technology disputes continue, the EU can exert important global influence to bring more balance between the two power blocs. In response to a recently hardening perception of China in the West, the EU has adopted a series of defensive economic measures as part of the EU’s economic security strategy. The urgent question arises as to how the EU should position itself in these areas in the competition between the US and China or US-EU-China triangle of interconnectedness with the biggest global GDP share in this decade. In this context, it is also interesting to find out to what extent curbing economic ties with China is much more difficult for the EU than for the US. China-EU relations are increasingly focused on “de-riskingDe-risking” rather than “decouplingDecoupling”, limiting the EU’s vulnerability to eventually becoming self-sufficient from a variety of China-related geopolitical tensions. In fact, a Sino-EU “de-risking” strategy means a less aggressive and comprehensive approach than the “decoupling” of economic ties that until recently was promoted by the US through the trade and tech war. Ultimately, the EU and its individual member states have always strived for dialogue on disputes with China, whether or not through WTO settlement. The EU’s major challenge in this decade is to utilize the potential policy areas for Sino-EU cooperation as much as possible with a common EU strategy towards China.