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EU-China relations: De-risking or de-coupling − the future of the EU strategy towards China

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Study PE 754.466, European Parliament, March 2024
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As the European Union (EU) prepares for a new round of parliamentary elections, how should the bloc consider its strategy towards China?

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To evaluate the EU's policy framework towards China, this study analyses the varied facets of bilateral relations and the EU’s approach towards China, including its policy of de-risking, together with issues relating to China’s domestic politics and foreign policy. It highlights the need for the EU to adopt a coherent vision and a comprehensive and consistent long-term China strategy that can guide its future actions towards China and on the world stage. Based on its findings, it also provides a series of specific recommendations for the EU on the numerous topics analysed in the study.

John Seaman, Research fellow at Ifri's Center for Asian Studies, was a co-author of this study, notably contributed to alysis on the concepts of de-risking and economic security in the EU's relation with China

 

> The study is available on the European Parliament's website.

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John SEAMAN

John SEAMAN

Intitulé du poste

Research Fellow, Center for Asian Studies, Ifri

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Center for Asian Studies
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Asia is a nerve center for multiple global economic, political and security challenges. The Center for Asian Studies provides documented expertise and a platform for discussion on Asian issues to accompany decision makers and explain and contextualize developments in the region for the sake of a larger public dialogue.

The Center's research is organized along two major axes: relations between Asia's major powers and the rest of the world; and internal economic and social dynamics of Asian countries. The Center's research focuses primarily on China, Japan, India, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, but also covers Southeast Asia, the Korean peninsula and the Pacific Islands. 

The Centre for Asian Studies maintains close institutional links with counterpart research institutes in Europe and Asia, and its researchers regularly carry out fieldwork in the region.

The Center organizes closed-door roundtables, expert-level seminars and a number of public events, including an Annual Conference, that welcome experts from Asia, Europe and the United States. The work of Center’s researchers, as well as that of their partners, is regularly published in the Center’s electronic journal Asie.Visions.

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Trump II, the Crisis of the Rules-Based Order and Europe’s Indo-Pacific Strategy

Date de publication
10 September 2026
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This article examines the implications of Trump II for Europe’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific. The piece contends that Trump II is accelerating the erosion of the rules-based order and undermining the relevance of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) concept, while forcing Europe to refocus on its own continental security amid US retrenchment. Paradoxically, these very constraints create conditions for a more autonomous, pragmatic, and explicitly interest-driven European engagement in the Indo-Pacific, rather than outright withdrawal.

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China and Trade in CRMs

China and Trade in Critical Raw Materials (CRMs)

Date de publication
15 September 2026
Accroche

Critical raw materials (CRMs) have become central features of a new dynamic in global power politics, with China now wielding considerable leverage. Amid rising regional and global uncertainty, resource security is back in the spotlight as a key determinant of sovereignty and national security for Europe, its allies and its partners. The very survival of key, even vital industries, from automotive to aerospace to health to energy to defense, is at stake.

John SEAMAN Vincent DONNEN Wouter JACOBS
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Japan’s Energy Policy after Hormuz. Security, Competitiveness, and Decarbonization

Date de publication
04 September 2026
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The 2026 Hormuz crisis has strengthened rather than weakened the rationale for Japan’s decarbonization strategy, contrary to what might have been expected. Rather than energy policy supplanting climate policy, the two should actually be viewed as inseparable.

Takashi Hattori
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Japan and Nuclear Weapons: Between Extended Deterrence and Normative Dilemmas

Date de publication
17 July 2026
Accroche

Since the late 1950s, Japan’s nuclear weapons policy has been based on the coexistence of two competing normative rationales: the rejection of nuclear weapons, rooted in the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the recognition of the central role of US extended nuclear deterrence for Japan’s security.

Timothée Albessard
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How can this study be cited?

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John SEAMAN, Andreea BRINZA, Una Alexandra BERZINA-CERENKOVA, Philippe LE CORRE, Richard Q. TURCSANYI, Stefan VLADISAVLJEV, « EU-China relations: De-risking or de-coupling − the future of the EU strategy towards China », External Books, Ifri, 26 March 2024.
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