Category: News

Executive summary:

In recent years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has introduced four landmark initiatives—Global Development (GDI), Global Security (GSI), Global Civilisation (GCI), and Global Governance (GGI)—that collectively represent effort to reshape international norms. The analysis suggests that these initiatives represent a systematic consolidation of long-standing paradigms of China’s domestic discourse—specifically the primacy of development, the diversity of civilizations, and the centrality of social stability—projected onto the global stage. By aligning its historical experience as a developing country with its contemporary diplomatic goals, Beijing seeks to provide an alternative framework for international relations that emphasises state-led modernisation and pluralistic governance. The brief explores how these paradigms bridge China’s domestic political identity with its role as a key actor in the Global South, offering a distinctive vision for global order and dispute resolution through new institutions such as the International Organisation for Mediation (IOMed).

Policy recommendations: 

Stay tuned with us by reading more: ReConnect China Policy Brief 35_Development, Civilisation and Stability

Executive summary:

The EU-China IP Dialogue Mechanism, established in 2003, has facilitated technical exchanges on IP legislation, enforcement, and judicial protection for over two decades. Yet implementation gaps between dialogue outputs and on-the-ground outcomes continue to challenge European businesses operating in China. While China has made significant progress in IP protection—reflected in consistently rising satisfaction scores and strong Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) court performance—enforcement divergences persist, particularly in online counterfeiting, trade secret protection, and Standard Essential Patent (SEP) governance. This policy brief argues that incremental technical cooperation alone is insufficient to address emerging structural tensions. The EU should complement the existing Dialogue with an EU-China High-Level IP Security and Enforcement Dialogue, deploy dedicated European IP attaché teams in key Chinese economic regions, and lead plurilateral diplomacy at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to establish a Joint Understanding on Fair SEP Litigation. These recommendations aim to transform the IP dialogue from a declaratory mechanism into a results-oriented enforcement tool that protects European innovation while fostering reciprocal engagement.

Policy recommendations: 

Stay tuned with us by reading more: ReConnect China Policy Brief 34_Strengthening the EU-China IP Dialogue

Executive summary:

Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) technology is essential for the European Union to achieve its 2050 climate neutrality target, particularly for hard-to-abate industrial sectors. Yet the EU currently captures less than 0.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually, while needing to scale to 50 million tonnes by 2030 and 450 million tonnes by 2050—requiring a nearly thousandfold increase within 25 years. China, by contrast, has achieved rapid CCUS deployment, with over 120 projects and more than 1 million tonnes of annual capture capacity, spanning diverse technological pathways from coal power to steel, cement, and chemical industries. Chinese enterprises have been willing to invest in CCUS as a strategic emerging field, accepting that early-stage projects may not yet be commercially profitable.

This policy brief argues that enhanced EU-China CCUS cooperation aligns with the European Commission’s “de-risking” approach: managing strategic dependencies while pursuing mutual benefit. China’s manufacturing scale and deployment experience complement EU strengths in regulatory frameworks and monitoring technologies. Based on learning curve analysis using a 15% learning rate for EU-China cooperation—reflecting enhanced learning-by-doing from the larger combined market and China’s manufacturing scale advantages—cooperation could reduce EU capture costs by an estimated 52% by 2040, compared to EU-alone deployment with a 10% learning rate. This translates to projected annual savings of approximately EUR 5 billion at EU deployment scales of 280 million tonnes per year by 2040. Moreover, cooperation enables the EU to establish standards and frameworks in this critical technology area while accelerating progress towards its binding climate targets.

Policy recommendations:

Stay tuned with us by reading more: ReConnect China Policy Brief 33-Leveraging EU-China Synergies to Scale CCUS

Executive summary:

Beijing has become more explicit in weaponising trade dependencies through export controls, particularly in critical minerals and rare earth elements (REEs). Europe now faces a structural dilemma: how to reduce strategic vulnerabilities relative to China without shifting towards increasing dependencies on the United States.

This brief examines two key pressure points for European strategic value chains: EVs (and batteries in particular) and rare-earth permanent magnets. Furthermore, it evaluates emerging U.S. counter-initiatives such as Pax Silica and FORGE. The conclusion is straightforward: rather than reducing exposure, recent European trade and industrial policies have largely redistributed dependence across different segments of strategic value chains. Europe must pursue an international economic agenda of diversification of supplies while strengthening supply-chain resilience, not bloc alignment.

Policy recommendations:

Stay tuned with us by reading more: ReConnect China Policy Brief No.32-Neither Pax Sinica nor Pax Silica Europe’s Supply Chain Security Dilemma