Wang Yi's tour of Europe sets tone for EU-China summit later this month

Business Times

2 days ago

CHINESE Foreign Minister Wang Yi finished up a big week of diplomacy in Europe on Sunday (Jul 6), but his marathon trip is only a starting point ahead of this month's landmark EU-China economic and political summit as they mark 50 years of bilateral ties.
In his grand tour of the region, Wang met several top European leaders, including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, as well as senior Cabinet members from Belgium, France and Germany. He also attended the China-EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue in Brussels and the China-Germany Strategic Dialogue on Diplomacy and Security in Berlin.
Throughout his trip, Wang stressed that China and Europe have no fundamental conflicts of interest, but share, instead, extensive common economic and political interests.
Yet, there are unquestionably growing challenges chilling relations between the two powers.
This was summarised by France's Le Monde, which reported about 'the impossible warming of China-EU relations … with no progress on a host of disputes' including trade imbalances, the current tensions in the Middle East, and cybersecurity. The divisions are reportedly so significant that the two-day EU-China summit starting Jul 24 may be shortened by a day.
An area of disagreement is the Ukraine war, where Wang reportedly told the EU that China will not let Russia lose the conflict. While Beijing's public position is officially one of neutrality, it has provided Moscow with significant diplomatic support.
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On the economic front, China's trade surplus with the EU hit a record through May. Last October, the EU imposed tariffs of up to 35 per cent on Chinese electric vehicles, citing unfair subsidies, while Beijing has retaliated recently with inquiries into Europe's pork, dairy and brandy sectors.
Both sides also clashed over rare earth metals, of which China controls over 90 per cent of global processing capacity. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the 'unilateral and often not very transparent' export restrictions on rare earths are causing 'great concern' – worries that Wang downplayed.
Yet, as much as the talks with Wang may have been disappointing, von der Leyen and other key leaders also moved closer to staging a consolidated stance against China. Such unity will be welcomed, given the bloc's past struggles to find such common purpose against Beijing.
In recent years, top EU officials have become increasingly concerned about whether China's external interventions in Europe represent a divide-and-rule strategy to undermine the continent's collective interests. The EU's former foreign affairs chief Joseph Borrell even asserted that Beijing is a 'systemic rival that seeks to promote an alternative model of governance' to that of Europe.
This comes as Europe is growing increasingly important as a foreign policy focal point for Beijing, as Wang's visit underlines. China had, under the pandemic, generally enjoyed growing influence across much of the region.
Over the past half decade, however, relations have become chillier – since the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Climate cooperation remains an issue, with some doubtful that Beijing and Brussels would sign a joint climate action pledge at this month's summit, despite previous collaboration in this area.
Brussels has therefore sought to bring the bloc together into a stronger policy – led by von der Leyen – towards China, even if her role does not have a formal foreign policy mandate.
While the EU values its relationship with China, the mood is clearly leaning in a more hawkish direction. For example, while the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment had been concluded in December 2020, ratification by the European Parliament has stalled for years.
Still, there remains a split in views on Beijing within the 27-member bloc – a central challenge for von der Leyen.
It is too simplistic to refer to this as an East-West dichotomy, not least because Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is perhaps China's biggest cheerleader in the EU. Nonetheless, there are clear differences in outlook – primarily between the more hawkish Eastern European nations of Czech Republic, Poland and Lithuania and their Western counterparts of France and Spain, which have more business links with China.
Brussels may consider the positions of the latter two particularly problematic, since they both want to continue engaging extensively with China. For instance, the longstanding and deep business ties that Paris has with Beijing are widely documented, so it is no surprise that President Emmanuel Macron is more equivocal than von der Leyen on China.
During a joint visit to Beijing with von der Leyen a few years ago, the French president raised eyebrows in Europe by taking a 50-strong business delegation. He also used the language of economic reciprocity, rather than the von der Leyen's phrase of 'de-risking'. Perhaps most surprising of all was the fact that Macron did not appear to apply significant pressure on Beijing over its support for Russia against Ukraine, and had moved away from prior positions on Taiwan.
Taken together, this challenging context underlines why this month's summit may undershoot expectations. Overall, EU relations with China are likely to remain chilly for the foreseeable future, and could yet go into the deep freeze during von der Leyen's second term.
The writer is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics