The first face-to-face summit in more than four years between China and the European Union (EU) began on Thursday in Beijing in a dog-face. The last videoconference appointment had been described as a “dialogue of the deaf” by Josep Borrell. At the meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned EU officials that China and Europe should see each other “as partners and not rivals” and not “get into confrontations” as a result of their different political systems.
The Chinese president received the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Sources close to her had been breaking down the memorial of grievances with which the German woman went to Beijing. Their big argument is that the EU’s trade deficit with China has reached a record level over the last two years, something “unsustainable.” Xi’s big argument is that it is not precisely China that is fueling the war in Ukraine or the sanctions against Russia, which have played a determining role in raising the price of European energy bills for its manufactured products.
The EU does not give up and seems determined to ask China to exert greater pressure on Russia, and even circulates a list of a dozen Chinese companies that, with their dual-use technology, would be helping Moscow to circumvent the sanctions of Washington and Brussels. Senior officials in Brussels are expected to criticize China’s subsidies to its green industry and, more specifically, electric car manufacturers, arguing that they drive foreign competition out of the market. But European regulatory muscle will also be on display, capable of keeping selected Chinese exports out of the picture.
Another issue on the agenda is the Israeli military offensive by land, sea and air on the Gaza Strip. Although China, which recognizes both Israel and Palestine and advocates taking real steps towards the formation of a Palestinian State alongside the Zionist State, also has uncomfortable questions to ask Europe, as well as about its will and ability to put pressure on third countries.
It should be remembered that this long-delayed summit comes a month after the United States hosted Xi Jinping in San Francisco, within the framework of an Asia-Pacific meeting. The meeting with his counterpart Joe Biden, where the differences were also staged, with hot towels, was followed, in a few hours, by a meeting with the cream of the American multinationals. The CEOs, led by those from Silicon Valley, greeted Xi with a standing ovation.
