The EU’s Struggle of “Standing in Two Boats”: the Dual Complexity of the Belt and Road in China-EU Relations

The chapter intends to provide a framework for examining the interactive forces of convergence and divergence brought about by the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in current China-European Union (EU) relations. Despite the fact that both China and the EU share mutual economic interests and benefits in the development of cross Eurasia trade routes and infrastructure, the BRI is seen by the EU as China’s grand economic and geopolitical project that is generating complexities and controversies and is challenging the EU’s policy coherence. The chapter applies two analytical perspectives to studying the effect and impact of the BRI on China-EU relations. The first is to see the BRI as part of China’s “spatial fix” strategy in which both converging and diverging interests are intertwined in China-EU economic relations. The second is to conceptualize the BRI from the geopolitical perspective, a diverging force for raising the EU’s security concern on Beijing’s grand BRI objective. The conclusion is that the EU is trying to stand in two boats – a difficult accommodation of the complexities of the BRI.