Associated Press
China’s envoy to the European Union on Wednesday urged the 27-nation bloc to deepen its ties with his country even further and said that he hoped the EU’s desire for “strategic autonomy” will guide its foreign policy in the future. The EU is China’s biggest trading partner, but they are also economic competitors, and as Beijing has become more assertive in recent years the bloc has struggled to balance its commercial interests with a country that it sees as “a systemic rival” and has human rights concerns about. The two sealed a major investment agreement in December, but the EU also expressed concerns about freedom of expression, the intimidation of journalists, as well as the detention of human rights defenders, lawyers, and intellectuals in China.