Want To Be China's Partner But Taking The Opposite Stance, Foreign Minister Wang Yi Says There Is A Cognitive Divide In The European Union

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell with Chinese Foreign Minister Wan Yi. (Twitter/@MFA_China)

JAKARTA - The European Union (EU) has a cognitive divide in its policy towards China, by trying to be a partner as well as seeing it as an opponent, Wang Yi, state adviser, and foreign minister, said in an interview with state media on Thursday.

Relations between China and the European Union have soured this year after investment deals were frozen amid reciprocal sanctions, and EU member Lithuania withdrew its diplomats from Beijing during a dispute over Taiwan's status.

Not only that, this year the European Parliament stopped ratifying investment pacts with China until the Bamboo Curtain Country lifted sanctions against EU politicians.

The Chinese sanctions are a response to Western sanctions against Chinese officials accused of mass detentions of members of the Uighur Muslim community in western China.

EU meeting with China. Twitter @MFA_China)

Foreign Minister Wang said that putting up obstacles in the investment agreement would ultimately only harm the long-term interests of the European people.

"There seems to be a kind of 'cognitive split' in China's European policy. It is hard to imagine that, on the one hand, it has forged a comprehensive strategic partnership with China and on the other, has positioned China as an institutional opponent", he criticized citing Reuters on December 30.

The European Union has taken a more lenient stance on China, one of its most important trading partners, than the United States, but has expressed concern over its human rights record and actions in the South and East China Seas and the Taiwan Strait.

This month, EU and US officials said their approaches to China were increasingly "converging".