The thing to realize about the EU-China investment pact and transatlantic cooperation on China generally, which this article highlights, is that Merkel wants to prevent the US from building a common front on China with the EU. That is a feature not a bug of her policy. 1/4 https://twitter.com/niubi/status/1354222987499737088

She much prefers Biden to Trump of course but she still doesn’t want to see China as a driver of the transatlantic alliance. Period. She is a believer in the old responsible stakeholder theory: with engagement China can evolve toward that. 2/4

The question the Biden admin will face is how to deal with that reality. A few options:
1) wait her out but he’s successor may have a very similar view.
2) work with her, which will put a very low ceiling on what can be accomplished
Or.......3/4

3) on this issue, work the internal politics of the EU strengthen those voices who take the opposite view and want to work together on China. This would of course annoy the German government and some others but it has a big upside too. Complicated to execute.

4/4