The Brussels-based Europe India Chamber of Commerce (EICC) has urged the European Union to fundamentally revisit its China policy keeping in mind long-term strategic interests and substantially reduce trade, economic and technological dependence on the Communist nation.

Stressing the need for the EU to take a hard line on China, EICC Secretary General Sunil Prasad said failure to meet the challenge would prove economically and politically ‘disastrous’.

Prasad, in a letter to European Commission President von der Leyen, Prasad said the worldwide ‘hatred and distrust’ of China offers the EU a historic opportunity to “fundamentally revisit its China policy keeping in mind its long-term strategic interests”.

Accusing China of political ‘opportunism’ and geopolitical "autism", he said it was using its strategic trade advantage to ‘intimidate’ its neighbors and wage "proxy war" with them, “and financially enslave developing or underdeveloped countries with its well-developed debt-trap diplomacy”.

Prasad alleged that China sought to undermine the social, economic, and political framework of democratic societies and EU's alliances to “reshape and dominate the world”, and urged the EU to establish a high-level expert task force of experienced strategists on China.

“This task force should be tasked to examine everything from EU security and emerging technologies to global competitiveness and ideological threats to EU values. The Task Force should also investigate the Communist Party of China funds and financial assets which support the operations of the organization and its vast structure, including propaganda and influence program in EU countries,” he said.

“To deal with China, it is imperative that the EU substantially reduces its trade, economic and technological dependence on China to avoid the kind of coercion that China's neighbors suffer to maintain their own productive and inventive vitality,” he said.

“There is a need to take a hard line on China. Failure to meet this profound challenge will be economically and politically disastrous for the EU and for generations to come,” the letter said.

(SAM)