After a general agreement at the end of December, legal details still have to be negotiated.
In the new investment agreement with the European Union, China wanted to punish those EU countries that limit or block the access of Chinese telecommunications companies such as Huawei to their markets. Chinese negotiators added a corresponding clause, but the European negotiators rejected it, according to a draft of the text of the agreement that the German press agency received on Monday.
China wanted to reserve the right to deny the advantages of the partial opening of its telecommunications sector to investors from countries “which block or arbitrarily discriminate against Chinese telecommunications companies in law or in politics,” reads the controversial passage in the draft text from 11 December, which was crossed out.
The EU Commission and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the then German EU Council Presidency and China's head of state and party Xi Jinping announced a general agreement on the agreement at the end of December, the legal details of which still have to be negotiated. The agreement must also be approved by the EU member states and the European Parliament.
However, there is considerable opposition to the agreement. Critics don't go far enough. The agreement was also criticized as premature, as future US President Joe Biden wanted to create an alliance with allies such as the Europeans in dealing with China. From experience there are also doubts about China's compliance with the treaty.
The breakthrough also came in a difficult political climate. China has come under international criticism because of its tough course in Hong Kong, the internment of Muslim Uyghurs, the persecution of civil rights activists and its controversial territorial claims in the South China Sea.
