Micheál Martin says Europe’s de-risking strategy not aimed at China

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has told China’s foreign minister Wang Yi that Europe’s “de-risking” policy is not directed at Beijing but is a response to economic shocks including Brexit, Covid and the war in Ukraine.

During a two-hour meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guest House, they discussed China’s trade relationship with Ireland and the EU. “What I was very anxious to put across today was that Europe is not decoupling, Ireland is not decoupling. Europe and Ireland are very much up for a strong economic relationship with China and that de-risking is very much more in the context of lessons learned from the pandemic, from Brexit in our situation and the war in Ukraine, that overdependencies can create resilience issues for every economy and every society,” Mr Martin told reporters later.

“Foreign minister Wang put the point across very strongly also that the interdependencies of the global supply chain are such that we need to be very careful that de-risking doesn’t become decoupling. We’re very clear that it will not, and that ultimately the interdependence across the globe means that. My anticipation is that the forthcoming EU-China summit, will be very much on the basis of strengthening that bilateral economic relationship between Europe and China.”

Mr Wang, who holds a senior position in the Communist Party leadership alongside his role as foreign minister, opened the meeting by praising the Tánaiste’s commitment to the bilateral relationship.

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He said that everyone knew about Ireland as a trading country, and that it had opened the world’s first free-trade zone at Shannon.

“After China’s reform and opening up we established a special economic zone, and we also went to Ireland to learn from the experience and learn from Ireland’s practices,” he said. “Later we kept pace with the times with Ireland, and we occupied a place in the world with new high-tech developments; we have better co-operation in scientific and technological innovation. We value our relationship with Ireland, and we appreciate Ireland’s ability to implement policies objectively and rationally.”

Mr Wang invited Mr Martin to raise any issue, including human rights, and the Tánaiste spoke about the treatment of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang province, the position of human rights defenders in China and the crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong.

China rejected a report on Xinjiang by former United Nations human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet as false, but Mr Martin said Beijing should have allowed it to be considered by the UN human rights council.

“It’s not just about China. I made the point that every country has to be held to account. We are held to account in terms of universal periodic reviews, Ireland is. So we’re very clear that this is not a China-specific issue. Human rights applies to all of us, indivisible, universal, and every member state of the UN is subject to analysis,” he said.