Rubio and Wang’s speeches came as a reshaping of U.S. foreign policy has shaken America’s long-standing ties with Western allies, who are now openly declaring that the era of global security and U.S.-backed rules has come to an end. Now the race is on to shape what comes next
Minutes after the head of Chinese diplomacy, Marco Rubio, proclaimed that in a conciliatory speech at the Munich Security Conference, his Chinese counterpart took the stage with his own proposal.
“China and the EU are partners, not rivals,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his audience, speaking from the same stage on Saturday.
“As long as we firmly understand this point, we will be able to make the right choices in the face of challenges, prevent the international community from heading towards division, and promote the continued progress of human civilization.”
Rubio and Wang’s speeches came as a reshaping of U.S. foreign policy has shaken America’s long-standing ties with Western allies, who are now openly declaring that the era of global security and U.S.-backed rules has come to an end.
Now the race is on to shape what comes next.
Rubio took advantage of his speech at the annual security meeting to reassure European leaders, assuring them that President Donald Trump’s administration is committed to the alliance, even recognizing the need for greater support from them, and that the current international system needs to be “rebuilt”.
And Wang, a veteran diplomat who has been the central figure in leader Xi Jinping’s foreign policy for more than a decade, was ready, with his carefully calculated retort.
The problems of the current international system do not lie primarily in the United Nations, he said, but in “certain countries that widen differences, adopt a country-first approach, engage in inter-bloc clashes and revive Cold War thinking.”
China and Europe, he added – in an apparent warning to US politics and diplomacy – must jointly reject “unilateral practices”, safeguard free trade and oppose clashes between blocs.
Parallel meeting
But Wang presented China’s proposal at a time when Beijing is also seeking to maintain strong ties with the US ahead of an expected Trump trip to China later this spring.
The importance of this historic meeting is enormous, as it could consolidate the relative stability between the world’s two largest economies, which emerged after the meeting between Xi Jinping and Trump in South Korea last autumn.
Asked about the visit, Wang Yi said in Munich that he was “confident” about the prospects for China-US relations, but warned about how those ties could deteriorate.
There are “two different perspectives” for relations between the countries: one in which the US can “understand China reasonably” and cooperate, and another in which the US seeks decoupling, opposes China in an “impulsive” way and goes beyond Chinese “red lines”, including in relation to Taiwan.
The latter path would likely “bring China and the United States into conflict,” he said.
Rubio also addressed the US-China relationship at Saturday’s conference. The well-known critic of China stated, during a question and answer session, that it would be a “geopolitical negligence” if “two of the great powers on the planet” did not communicate to manage areas where their interests are not aligned.
Rubio and Wang also met on Friday on the sidelines of the conference for talks that appeared to set the stage for Trump’s expected visit.
After the meeting, Wang said the diplomats had “positive and constructive” talks and would “jointly implement the important consensus reached” by their respective leaders.
A receptive audience?
The main question that Wang and his delegation may be exploring in Munich is how attentive Europe is to their broader proposal.
Beijing has long sought to promote its own vision of a world no longer dominated by US-led alliances and institutions – and more favorable to its own interests. And he sees Europe as an important pole that should not easily ally with the United States.
China is “a firm force for peace” and “a reliable force for stability”, was Wang’s message at the meeting, as he presented Xi’s initiative to reshape global governance as the answer to the current moment.
But Beijing’s message finds a difficult reception as European leaders are concerned about the huge trade deficit with China and the country’s control over strategic supply chains.
Furthermore, relations have deteriorated in recent years due to China’s support for Russia in the war against Ukraine, and European leaders’ growing concern about Chinese military aggression in the South China Sea and around Taiwan, the self-governing democracy that Beijing claims as its territory.
On Sunday, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung challenged Wang’s stance on China as a peaceful power, saying the country’s recent “military provocations” contravene UN principles. (China claims that the military exercises defend its “national sovereignty,” and Wang, in her speech in Munich, accused some countries of “trying to separate Taiwan from China” and singled out Japan, not herself, as the regional threat.)
Despite the concerns, Beijing sees an opportunity as Western leaders are recalibrating their foreign policy in the face of changing relations with the US.
In recent months, several leaders from US-allied countries have visited Beijing, seeking to deepen cooperation and dialogue with China, despite friction with the US.
Before the event in Munich, organizers proclaimed that the US-led post-1945 international order is “in destruction”, with the US acting as the most powerful demolition force.
Europeans may have breathed a sigh of relief, as the conference president described, after Rubio’s speech, but Trump’s threats last month to take control of Greenland – territory of NATO ally Denmark – still resonate in European ears.
And Beijing hopes that Europe will at least pay a little more attention to its own proposal.
