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On December 7, European Council President Charles Michel and European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen attended the China-EU summit in Beijing. It was the primary in-person model of the annual summit since 2019, because of the intervention of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each Michel and von der Leyen have visited China individually, nevertheless (Michel in November 2022 and von der Leyen in April 2023).
In a post-summit press convention, von der Leyen described the assembly as a “summit of decisions,” explaining, “It was a chance to elucidate clearly our issues and our expectations to the Chinese language management and naturally to additionally search progress in key areas of our bilateral relationship.”
Whereas the summit correct was chaired by Michel, von der Leyen, and Chinese language Premier Li Qiang, the European leaders additionally met with Chinese language President Xi Jinping. He gave a rosy tackle the connection, in accordance with a Chinese language Overseas Ministry spokesperson’s abstract. “For the reason that finish of final 12 months, the China-EU relations have proven a sound momentum of consolidation and progress,” the spokesperson paraphrased Xi as saying. The Chinese language chief added that “China and the EU are two main forces advancing multipolarity, two main markets in assist of globalization, and two main civilizations championing variety.” China has lengthy envisioned the EU as an unbiased pole in worldwide relations, with the not-so-subtle subtext being a desired break up between Europe and the US.
Xi additionally advised the EU leaders that “we must always not regard one another as rivals simply because we’ve totally different methods, scale back cooperation simply because there’s competitors, or interact in confrontation simply because we’ve variations.” He struck the same tone, in search of to downplay areas of friction, throughout his current assembly with U.S. President Joe Biden.
Particularly, Beijing is urgently pushing to have Europe break ranks with the US on sanctions designed to limit the expansion of China’s tech business. As Xi put it, China “is keen to treat the EU as a key companion in financial and commerce cooperation, a precedence companion in scientific and technological cooperation, and a dependable companion in industrial and provide chain cooperation, in pursuit of mutual profit and customary improvement.”
The EU leaders, nevertheless, struck a much more cautious tone. They notably voiced dissatisfaction with continued restrictions on European corporations working in China. Each Michel and von der Leyen repeated EU issues concerning the “unbalanced” commerce relationship with China, with von der Leyen warning, “Politically, European leaders will be unable to tolerate that our industrial base is undermined by unfair competitors.”
“The EU-China relationship is one which issues. However we have to make our commerce and financial relations extra balanced, reciprocal, and mutually helpful,” Michel declared. “…Right now needs to be a primary step.” However with no commitments from China made in the course of the summit, there’s not a lot of a “first step” to speak about.
That stated, von der Leyen additionally reiterated the EU formulation that “Europe doesn’t wish to decouple from China… What we wish is de-risking.” To clarify the excellence, she pointed to the instance of Russia, which has been shut out of the EU market since its invasion of Ukraine: “Now we have seen a decoupling of Europe from Russia, for good causes. We don’t need a decoupling from China.”
China’s Overseas Ministry spokesperson famous the EU assurances on not pursuing decoupling, however ignored the prolonged dialogue on de-risking.
The largest disconnect was, unsurprisingly on Ukraine, which von der Leyen reiterated is a “severe risk to European safety.” The EU has been vocal about denouncing the Russian invasion, whereas China has refused to criticize Russia and even allegedly offered army tools to its long-standing companion (one thing Beijing denies). Whereas the Chinese language readout barely talked about Ukraine, the EU one made clear that it was a serious subject of debate.
“The EU reiterated that, as a everlasting member of the U.N. Safety Council, China has a particular accountability in upholding the U.N. Constitution’s core ideas, together with territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the European Council’s readout of the summit stated. “The EU referred to as on China to make use of its affect on Russia to cease its battle of aggression and strongly inspired China to interact on Ukraine’s Peace Components. The EU underlined the significance of China persevering with to chorus from supplying deadly weapons to Russia.”
And, in fact, China’s spokesperson made no point out of the truth that the “EU reiterated its deep issues concerning the human rights state of affairs in China, notably systemic human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet, compelled labor, the remedy of human rights defenders and individuals belonging to minorities, in addition to the continued erosion of basic freedoms in Hong Kong…” The EU leaders additionally raised issues about flashpoints like Taiwan and the South China Sea, reiterating that “we’re against any unilateral try to vary the established order by pressure or coercion.”
There’s some room for widespread pursuits, with either side keen on cooperation on synthetic intelligence dangers, local weather change, and people-to-people exchanges. It’s not a coincidence that these are the identical areas the place the US and China try to push ahead their cooperation after the Biden-Xi summit. Additionally, just like the Biden-Xi summit, there have been no main deliverables, aside from guarantees to maintain speaking.
All in all, much more so than the China-U.S. summit in November, the Chinese language and European readouts present a basic disconnect. The EU leaders see a relationship that’s deeply unfair and unbalanced, whereas China persists in pretending all is nicely. China-U.S. relations have gotten so unhealthy that Beijing can now not delude itself {that a} return to “enterprise as standard” is feasible. Apparently, China has not but accepted that its relationship with Europe is endlessly modified.
As Exhibit A of this willful denialism on Beijing’s half, the Overseas Ministry spokesperson re-interpreted the EU demand for a “reciprocal” relationship right into a bland assertion that “EU-China cooperation is reciprocal and equal-footed.” That’s precisely the other of what Michel and von der Leyen stated of their press convention. One wonders if Xi truly bought the message and is simply pretending he didn’t.
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