The US and EU must realize that overstretching security concepts will ultimately harm their own security interests 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed the term "de-risking" in March, after which it was quickly embraced by some Western countries. In May, the term de-risking became a concept jointly accepted by the G7 countries, being included in the joint statement issued at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima. 

As the initiator of this concept, the EU was quick to take practical actions. In June, the EU set out the EU Economic Security Strategy, proposing multiple measures to promote the so-called de-risking process. Just a few days ago, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order blocking and regulating high-tech US-based investments going to China, as an effort to "de-risk" the relationship with China. 

Although the US and EU sometimes do not explicitly identify the source of the so-called risks, China is undoubtedly one of the main targets of their de-risking efforts. In fact, in recent years, the US and EU have been using the banner of safeguarding their own security to overstretch security concepts and keep introducing restrictive measures against China in cutting-edge technologies, trade and investment, and people-to-people and scientific exchanges. 

Such actions reflect a trend of political conservatism and economic nationalism, hindering normal global trade, investment, people-to-people exchanges and technological activities. 

Logically, once the process of securitization is initiated, some countries are prone to pursuing "absolute security" and seeking uncontrolled expansion of security issues, leading to the overstretching of security concepts. In fact, the expansion of security agendas has begun since the end of the Cold War. However, such expansion has accelerated remarkably in recent years. The overstretching of security agendas can have an impact on the political, diplomatic, economic and social agendas of some countries, leading to political conservatism and exclusiveness in international relations, which can have negative implications for their development and the international political environment. 

As security concepts become overstretched, security continues to encroach on other domains, potentially causing misallocation and wastage of national resources and weakening a country's ability to safeguard its critical security areas, which could ultimately hinder the attaining of security objectives. 

From an international political perspective, overstretching concepts of security strengthens realistic thinking and policy practices while weakening the role of institutionalism in achieving interest compromises and promoting cooperation to maintain basic mutual trust. It could intensify confrontation and conflicts between different countries. Excessive thinking on security can lead to the strengthening of identification over friends and foes, reducing a country's inclusiveness and flexibility in handling foreign relations. Overstretching the concept of security significantly increases the costs of cooperation and coordination among different countries, which is detrimental to international cooperation. 

The overstretching of security concepts will not only cause serious harm to the China-US and China-EU relations but also hinder the realization of the common interests of humanity, given the critical roles of China, the US, and EU in addressing global challenges. On the one hand, such actions by the US and the EU harm their cooperation and ties with China as well as the interests of all parties involved. There are significant trade and investment volumes and close people-to-people exchanges between China and the US as well as between China and the EU, and all three economies are important sources of global technological innovation. Some forces in the US and Europe have sought to overstretch security concepts to non-security issues, creating divisions and barriers through practices such as de-risking and decoupling, which have distorted the normal track for the development of China-US and China-EU relations. 

Moreover, by securitizing economic and technological issues, the world could become divided into different blocs. Some Western scholars have pointed out that by linking economic security with military security and restricting trade and investment with non-allies, the G7 is turning into a NATO in economic terms, a practice that ignores the reality of a multipolar world and the benefits of cooperation over confrontation. 

On the other hand, the actions by the US and EU to overstretch security concepts harm the common interests of all humanity. As the world's three largest economies, China, the US and the EU all play crucial roles not only for the global economic recovery and growth but also for poverty reduction in developing countries. They are the key pillars for addressing various global challenges. The world is now facing severe challenges such as global warming, biodiversity loss, marine pollution, the spread of infectious diseases, regional conflicts, and global humanitarian crises. Challenges in fields such as the regulation of artificial intelligence, outer space governance, and food security are also pressing concerns for all countries. These are all the areas where China, the US, and the EU urgently need to work together. However, the mentality and practices of some Western countries to overstretch security concepts have poisoned the atmosphere of their cooperation with China, ultimately harming the interests of all humanity, especially those of developing countries. 

In 2022, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Security Initiative, advocating a concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security, which has led the way for building a new international security architecture. China, under the guidance of the Global Security Initiative, should effectively safeguard its own security interests while firmly opposing all practices that overstretch security concepts on the international stage. Beijing should try to make global issues less security-oriented and proactively promote multilateralism and international cooperation. Meanwhile, from the perspective of safeguarding the common interests of humanity, the US and EU should abandon various thinking and behaviors that overstretch security concepts and adopt a more active and open stance to engage in close cooperation with China and other countries to jointly uphold global security and stability. 

Zhang Chao, Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.    

The article was originally published in China Daily Global on August 16, 2023. The article has been authorized.