Prime European Union officers Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa are because of meet with Chinese language President Xi Jinping in Beijing because the EU and China mark 50 years of diplomatic relations amid simmering tensions.
Von der Leyen and Costa, who respectively head up the European Fee and the European Council, will arrive in Beijing on Thursday for the twenty fifth EU-China summit. However within the lead-up to the one-day summit, it was unclear whether or not von der Leyen and Costa would really meet with Xi because of the ongoing political tensions between Brussels and Beijing.
Their assembly was initially deliberate as a two-day summit in Brussels, however Xi declined the invitation to attend, based on a report by The Monetary Occasions, citing folks conversant in the matter.
It was solely this week that China’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs formally confirmed {that a} assembly between Xi, von der Leyen, Costa and Chinese language Premier Li Qiang would go forward.
Regardless of the forwards and backwards over scheduling, Beijing has billed the occasion as an opportunity to reset relations with Europe, stated Marina Rudyak, an assistant professor on the Institute of Chinese language Research at Germany’s Heidelberg College.
“What we see so much from the Chinese language facet, and that is fairly fixed, is ‘let’s normalise the relations, let’s concentrate on pragmatic cooperation, let’s concentrate on the place we agree and accommodate the place we disagree’,” Rudyak instructed Al Jazeera.
Upfront of the summit, Chinese language state media revealed a constructive evaluation of EU-China relations – studies which can be typically seen as an oblique approach for Chinese language officers to touch upon problems with the day.
Overseas Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun equally described the China-EU relationship in glowing phrases on Tuesday, as “one of the vital influential bilateral relationships on this planet”, throughout a gathering with reporters.
“The China-EU relationship is now at a crucial juncture of constructing on previous achievements and opening up a brand new chapter,” Guo stated.
“The connection faces each new alternatives and new challenges,” Guo added, noting an “more and more turbulent worldwide panorama, with rising unilateralism and protectionism”.
Tensions over Xinjiang, Ukraine
Regardless of Beijing’s supply of an olive department to Brussels, expectations are low amongst Western observers that the EU and China will see any main breakthroughs, because of a number of ongoing and protracted disputes.
The EU and China have incessantly sparred over points comparable to human rights and political oppression in areas together with Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, however the relationship took a flip in 2021 when the EU sanctioned Chinese language officers for his or her oppression of ethnic minority Uighur Muslims.
China responded with sanctions of its personal on 10 Europeans, together with members of the European Parliament, and several other assume tanks.
Beijing lifted sanctions on the European MEPs in April in a gesture of goodwill earlier than the EU-China summit, however different political fractures stay over China’s ongoing and shut relationship with Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Beijing can also be extensively seen as retaining Russia afloat economically amid ongoing worldwide sanctions, notably by shopping for Russian power exports.
The EU has additionally accused China of skirting arms embargoes by promoting “dual-use” items to Russia, which can be utilized for civilian and army functions.
China has defended its actions, saying that it has lengthy wished to see a “negotiation, ceasefire and peace” in Ukraine.
Nonetheless, European officers had been alarmed in June, when Chinese language Overseas Minister Wang Yi reportedly instructed his EU counterpart that Beijing didn’t wish to see Russia lose the conflict towards Ukraine as a result of it might unencumber the US’s consideration, based on Rudyak at Heidelberg College.
The bloc continues to scrutinise Beijing’s financial ties with Russia, final week sanctioning two Chinese language banks for the primary time as a part of its digital currency package deal of sanctions towards Moscow geared toward ending the conflict. 5 firms primarily based in China had been additionally included on the EU’s sanctions record.
China’s Ministry of Commerce stated that the sanctions on Chinese language banks and firms “severely harmed” commerce and financial ties with the EU and threatened to reply with its personal measures towards Europe.
William Yang, a senior analyst for Northeast Asia on the Disaster Group, a Brussels-based nonpartisan assume tank, stated these points will solid a shadow over the EU-China summit on Thursday.
“Beijing considers its relationship with Russia as a core curiosity amid ongoing competitors with the US, and it retains denying the EU’s criticism that it’s an enabler of Russia’s conflict towards Ukraine,” Yang stated.
“With these elementary contradictions, prospects of any important breakthrough on the upcoming summit are unlikely.”
An in depth however bumpy commerce relationship
One other current supply of rigidity has been the EU-China financial relationship.
China is the EU’s third-largest buying and selling accomplice for items and companies, however EU officers are involved about their ballooning commerce deficit with China, which doubled in worth between 2015 and 2024, to succeed in 305.8 billion euros ($359bn) final yr, based on EU commerce knowledge.
The EU and member states have lengthy accused China of partaking in overproduction and “dumping” its low cost state-subsidised exports on the European market, however the challenge has heightened not too long ago.
“The view on the commerce and steadiness in Europe is barely totally different from america… the place it’s principally about who’s going to be primary. It is a dimension that’s not current in Europe,” Rudyak stated.
“Europe is absolutely involved about its core industries, together with the automotive. There’s a enormous concern about Chinese language EV overcapacity being dumped on the EU market at costs the place European firms can not compete, and subsidised Chinese language overcapacity crowding out European spine industries,” she continued.
European automakers have additionally suffered from Beijing’s current choice to curb its exports of uncommon earth minerals and magnets, that are important parts in many vehicle components and electrical automobiles.
Beijing, for its half, has opened its personal investigations into European “dumping”, concentrating on key merchandise like dairy, brandy and pork.
Beijing has different frustrations with Europe, even because it tries to reset relations, based on Wang Yi-wei, the director of the EU Analysis Centre at Renmin College within the Chinese language capital.
On the prime of the record for Beijing is the EU’s typically conflicting strategy to its relationship with the US and China, Wang stated.
“China has at instances engaged in wishful pondering, anticipating Europe to withstand US affect. In actuality, nevertheless, the EU seeks to steadiness each resisting American dominance and cooperating with the US, together with supporting its efforts to include China – for instance, justifying tariff disputes as addressing ‘Chinese language challenges’, moderately than questioning US unilateralism,” Wang stated in remarks shared with Al Jazeera.
China desires the EU to cease portraying their relationship as one in every of “aggressive cooperation”, and as a substitute see it via the paradigm of “cooperative competitors”, he famous.
With expectations for a breakthrough low, Marta Mucznik, a senior EU analyst on the Disaster Group, stated observers hope that the summit will a minimum of open up channels of communication between officers from each side.
“The EU doesn’t count on breakthroughs from this summit however sees it as an opportunity to maintain communication channels open with Chinese language leaders whereas it really works to carve out its geopolitical function and scale back crucial dependencies,” she stated.