Description
Whilst economic ties remain the main pillar of EU-China relations; with the increasing bilateral diplomatic tensions the discourse of European institutions and some EU member states on China has started to increasingly encompass a security dimension. This prominently appears in the 2019 Strategic Outlook, and it is further confirmed with the 2022 Strategic Compass for Security and Defence. A large part of the literature has described the shift in the relationship through the ‘China Threat’ narrative or a ‘New Cold War’ lens, conceptualising China as an ‘outsider’ and ‘contesting’ of the international order, and merely as a security threat to the US and its like-minded partners, including the EU. This research is based on extensive fieldwork, including elite interviews with EU officials and policymakers, as well as textual and archival analysis. Drawing on securitization theory in critical security studies, this paper challenges the literature depicting China as a monolithic ‘threat’; instead, it investigates the shift in EU-China relations from a Constructivist perspective and reflects on the role of norms and identity in non-state actors – and their member states - securitising moves towards China. This research demonstrates that, in the paradigm-shift in the EU-China relationship, and the consequent securitisation moves towards China, constructions and identities in relations among partners play a significant role. The study encompasses a more complex security discourse, which is needed to disentangle the intricacy of EU-China relations and to go beyond the dichotomy of China being either a ‘partner’ or a ‘threat’. The findings have wider implications for the ongoing debate on the role of ‘rising’ China in the international order.
