Voting for China: Impact of Economic Dependence between China and EU

• In Event: Other Forms of Power: Soft Power, Mythology, and Rhetoric in Foreign Policy

Abstract

The rise of China and 2008 global financial crisis created a situation where the European Union (EU) not only depends on cheap Chinese imports, but over time has also become increasingly reliant on Chinese investment to maintain their steady economic growth. China has become a major investor in the EU, as well as its second largest trading partner. Seventeen EU member states have joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as founding members, and many have also considered participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This increased economic dependence on China has created an opportunity for the Chinese government to expand its power projection over Europe. How has China’s economic leverage over the EU member states affected their voting behavior in international organizations? Is there any difference in voting behavior among the EU member states? In this paper, we created the China-EU voting cohesion index in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) from 2009 to 2019 and conducted statistical analysis to test whether the EU’s economic dependence on China has changed their voting behavior in the UNGA. The result supports our hypothesis that China and the EU show more coherent voting patterns as the EU’s economy depends on Chinese.

Authors

• Hye Ryeon Jang, University of Florida

• Dillon Fine