The EU-China relationship through public discussion on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

The economic relationship between the European Union (EU) and China has grown in its significance over the past decades. Despite of the extensive trade flows between the EU and China, foreign direct investment (FDI) flows between the two economic areas are substantial but their size is viewed to be underdeveloped in relation to the scale of the two economies. One reason for this is that China’s business environment is known for its numerous and various restrictions for foreign enterprises who also face unequal treatment relative to state owned enterprises (SOEs) in many sectors. In 2013, the EU began to negotiate a bilateral investment agreement (BIT) with China in order to target main asymmetries existing in the China-EU investment relationship. After seven years negotiations, the EU and China finally agreed to conclude the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) ‘in principle’ on the 30th of December 2020. This research observes the public discussion on the CAI’s conclusion in a period of 12/2020-2/2021. The study is carried out by analyzing through the methods of frame analysis how the agreement’s conclusion was framed in the Chinese and European media and other platforms. The analysis of selected European newspaper articles and think tank reports demonstrate that the wider political environment cannot be detached from the development of EU-China trade and investment relations. The European discussion frames the investment agreement as a multidimensional agreement that needs to be evaluated in a broader context. Furthermore, the European dialogue on the CAI implies that the European Union is in a challenging position to navigate between promoting its core values i.e., human rights and economic benefits. Compared to the studied European articles, the Chinese articles portray the CAI in a narrower context. In the Chinese media, the CAI is ultimately an investment agreement between the world’s two main economic regions despite it has also other elements included in its provisions. The Chinese discussion on the investment deal reflects well the rhetoric that the country has been applying in its diplomacy in recent years