[16] DG Trade Phil Hogan in the Von der Leyen Commission promised during his September 2019 confirmation hearings that he would seek to complete the negotiations by the end of 2020.

[citation needed] In 1979, just after the first direct elections to the European Parliament, the later institution established the "Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China" (D–CN).

China's growing economy became the focus for many European visitors and in turn Chinese businessmen began to make frequent trips to Europe.

[19] However, economic cooperation continued, with the EU's "New Asia Strategy", the first Asia–Europe Meeting in 1996, the 1998 EU-China summit and frequent policy documents desiring closer partnerships with China.

[24][25] On the 16th of October 2018, the European Union Naval Force and the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy held for the first time ever a joint military exercise.

Rear Admiral Alfonso Perez De Nanclares said that preparations for future exercises with the Chinese Navy are currently taking place.

[28][29][30] EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that there is "a geo-political component including a struggle for influence through spinning and the ‘politics of generosity’.

"[32] During the 2020 China-EU summit, European Council President Charles Michel stated that "Europe is a player, not a playing field" regarding its relationship with China.

[36] The Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie described the ban as a “devastating own goal.”[37] However, in 2022, the German Chamber of Commerce warned Lithuania that German-owned factories will be closed if relations with China are not improved.

[44]: 67  The agreement developed from pilot programs over the preceding eight years in which China and the EU worked on mutual registering and protection of geographical indications.

[44]: 67 On 31 December 2020, the EU announced that the negotiations for the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment were concluded and the deal is pending ratification by the European Parliament.

[non-primary source needed][45] French business leaders, including Airbus and Alstom officials,[46][47] accompanied Macron to the 2023 France–China Summit.

In an increasingly localised world, services such as finance, insurance, transport, logistics and communications deliver key intermediate inputs and thereby provide crucial support to the rest of the economy.

[52] Also, despite the arms embargo, a leaked US diplomatic cable suggested that in 2003 the EU sold China €400 million of "defence exports" and later, other military grade submarine and radar technology.

China assisted Europe by buying billions of euros' worth of junk Eurozone bonds;[53] in particular from Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has previously indicated her opposition to a lifting of the embargo, whereas her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, had been in favour.

[69] In 2020 and 2021, the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment drew a "firestorm of criticism" from US politicians and political commentators, who complained that the EU had not consulted the US before agreeing to the deal.

[72] Additionally, the Biden administration has claimed that the US will be "at the head of the table again", which some analysts say might be viewed as a threat towards the EU's goal of strategic autonomy from the US by implying that the European Union "[should] play second-fiddle to Washington".

[71] During the 2023 France-China Summit, French President Emmanuel Macron called for Europe to reduce its dependence on the United States in general and to stay neutral and avoid being drawn into any possible confrontation between the U.S. and China over Taiwan.

Speaking after a three-day state visit to China, Macron emphasised his theory of strategic autonomy, suggesting that Europe could become a "third superpower".

[67] Despite the ban, another leaked US cable suggested that in 2003 the EU sold €400 million of "defence exports" to China, and later approved other sales of military grade submarine and radar technology.

[79] On 6 October 2020, a group of 39 countries, including most of the EU member states, issued a statement denouncing the Chinese government for its treatment of ethnic minorities and for curtailing freedoms in Hong Kong.

[80] In December 2020, France said it will oppose the proposed Comprehensive Agreement on Investment between China and the European Union over the use of forced labour of Uyghurs.

[82] On 30 March 2022, the Human Rights Watch urged that European Union leaders should announce specific policy responses to the Chinese government's atrocity crimes.

[83] On June 9, 2022, the European Parliament adopted a motion condemning measures taken against the Uyghur community in China, stating that "credible evidence about birth prevention measures and the separation of Uyghur children from their families amount to crimes against humanity and represent a serious risk of genocide" and calling on authorities "to cease all government-sponsored programmes of forced labour and mass forced sterilisation and to put an immediate end to any measures aimed at preventing births in the Uyghur population, including forced abortions or sanctions for birth control violations".

[85] They expressed their concerns over the situation in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has detained an estimated one million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in internment camps, subjected them to forced labor and surveillance.

[89] The Guardian reported a source confirmed the claim to Reuters, but that the Chinese embassy in Washington vehemently denied it as a 'smear' to blame China.

[91] In February 2024, the European Union proposed sanctions that would target Chinese companies aiding Russia's war effort in Ukraine.

Macron went even further to announce his position to no longer follow an exclusive American model, and instead develop a European "strategic autonomy" towards the issue.

The push by the U.S. to include the EU in its opposition against Chinese hegemony had split the European Union into differential opinions among its members, with regard to Taiwan.