Von der Leyen delivers a State of the Union address: The EU will use all tools to deal with the trade imbalance with China

(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) European Commission President von der Leyen delivered the annual EU "State of the Union" speech in the European Parliament on Wednesday (September 16), saying that the expanding trade imbalance between the EU and China has reached a "critical moment" and that the EU will use "all available tools" to rebalance bilateral relations while reducing its dependence on China in strategic areas such as key raw materials.

This is the first time von der Leyen has delivered a State of the Alliance address since she started her second five-year term. In her 73-minute speech, she talked about trade with China, climate change, artificial intelligence, immigration, security and the war in Ukraine.

She quoted the opening line of Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" to describe today's world: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." She said that this sentence also applies to the current international situation.

Initiative for Canada to become the EU’s first “associate member”

Von der Leyen said that in an "openly hostile world", Europe must strengthen cooperation with partners with similar ideas. The EU hopes to reduce risks by deepening cooperation with countries with similar ideas.

Von der Leyen proposed to elevate the relationship between the EU and Canada to an unprecedented level and open the door to Canada as an "Associate Member". Although this status is not written into the current EU treaty, the EU hopes to deepen cooperation in areas such as economic security, smart manufacturing, technology, defense industry, Arctic affairs, energy, critical minerals, battery technology, quantum technology, and cybersecurity.

She pointed out that on the Ukrainian issue, Canada and the EU have always stood together, and both parties jointly defended democratic values ​​and believed that power should not belong to "the most powerful, richest or loudest person."

Trade imbalance reaches 'critical moment'

When talking about China, von der Leyen pointed out that the EU's goods trade deficit with China last year was as high as 1 billion euros per day, "this situation is no longer sustainable." She said that the current EU-China economic and trade relations have reached a critical node, and the two sides are having dialogue on trade issues, but the EU looks forward to seeing concrete results.

Von der Leyen said: "One thing must be clear: We will use all available tools to rebalance the relationship between the two sides. Words are important, but actions are more important." She also emphasized that finding a solution is in the common interest of both Europe and China.

In recent years, the EU has continued to pay attention to the expansion of China's manufacturing capacity and its impact on the European market. Von der Leyen once again mentioned the so-called "China Shock" in her speech, believing that some European industries are facing deindustrialization pressure. Therefore, the EU needs to further strengthen industrial competitiveness and ensure the security of key supply chains.

In this context, she announced that the EU will establish a new European Critical Raw Materials Agency, which will be responsible for coordinating the procurement and reserve work of the 27 member states in the field of strategic resources such as rare earths. Von der Leyen pointed out that the EU is currently highly dependent on China for many key raw materials, especially rare earths, so it is urgent to establish strategic reserves.

Von der Leyen said that this agency will help the EU acquire and store strategic resources more effectively and provide long-term guarantee for energy transition, advanced manufacturing and defense industry.

Security, climate and AI become EU’s future priorities

Von der Leyen also listed security, climate change and artificial intelligence as important policy directions for the EU in the future. She promised that the EU would provide "the strongest support to date" to Ukraine in the coming winter, including humanitarian assistance, energy facility support and air defense capacity building, and proposed the establishment of a "European Security Council" to strengthen security coordination between the EU and partners such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Norway.

In the face of the extreme heat waves and forest fires sweeping across Europe this summer, the EU will establish a "Climate Insurance Alliance" and launch a "European Heat Wave Response Plan" to improve its ability to respond to extreme weather. In the field of artificial intelligence, von der Leyen called for prudently promoting the development of cutting-edge technologies and strengthening cooperation with partners such as the United Kingdom and Canada to establish governance norms and safety guardrails. In addition, the EU also plans to launch a new emergency response mechanism for immigrants to strengthen border management and respond to sudden large-scale immigration flows.