Chinese President Xi Jinping warned senior EU officials on Thursday that China and Europe should not consider each other as rivals or “engage in confrontation” over differences in political systems, Reuters reported.
Xi also stated that China was willing to make the European Union a key economic and trading partner and cooperate in science and technology, including artificial intelligence.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell also met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang during their one-day visit.
Li Qiang told the EU leaders that China opposed the “broad politicisation and securitisation” of economic and trade issues in violation of basic norms of a market economy.
We hope that the EU will be prudent when introducing restrictive economic and trade policies and when using trade remedy measures to keep its trade and investment markets open.
Thursday’s meetings were the last chance for EU officials to meet face-to-face with senior Chinese officials ahead of next year’s European Parliament elections, which would bring changes to the 27-nation bloc’s leadership.
In another blow to EU-China relations, member state Italy “recently” formally informed China of its withdrawal from the Belt and Road Initiative. A number of EU commissioners, including the bloc’s trade and climate chiefs, visited Beijing after China dropped pandemic border restrictions this year.
The EU wants Beijing to leverage its influence with Russia to stop the war in Ukraine, and the main purpose of the trip was to persuade Xi Jinping to stop Chinese private companies from exporting European-made dual-use goods to Russia for its military campaign.
According to European officials, Brussels initially excluded these Chinese firms from its latest package of sanctions against Russia, released last month.
China has previously opposed the EU’s anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles and the EU’s “de-risking” policy aimed at reducing dependence on Chinese imports, especially critical raw materials.
The Chinese side believes that the investigation… seriously disrupts and distorts the global automotive industry chain… and will have a negative impact on China-EU economic and trade relations.
Foreign Minister Wang told visiting French counterpart Catherine Colonna last month that the biggest risk was “the uncertainty brought by broad politicisation” and that “the dependency most in need of reduction is protectionism.”
At the time of Colonna’s visit, China also offered visa-free entry to citizens of the EU’s five largest economies in a bid to boost post-pandemic tourism and improve China’s image in the West after relations deteriorated during the COVID pandemic.
EU officials say the two sides could co-operate more in fighting climate change and promoting biodiversity.
