BEIJING: The Chinese government intends to cancel part of a summit with European Union leaders planned for later this month, in the latest sign of the tensions between Brussels and Beijing.
The second day of the two-day summit in China is set to be canceled at Beijing’s request, according to people with knowledge of the planning, who asked not to be named discussing private information. Those plans could change by the time they’re finalised, one of the people said.
Originally, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa had planned to meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on July 24 and then travel to Hefei in central China on July 25 for a business summit. The meeting will now just be one day in Beijing.
Xi is trying to position himself as a more reliable partner than President Donald Trump, who is alienating US allies over issues from tariffs to defence. But relations between Brussels and Beijing have also become more strained by longstanding disagreements over the war in Ukraine and Chinese industrial policy.
Adding to the tensions is an increasingly unbalanced trading relationship compounded by China’s recent export controls on rare earth magnets, which have hit European industries hard.
The two sides had already canceled the flagship EU-China High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue and a digital forum, Bloomberg reported last month. That economic meeting would typically lay the groundwork for the leaders’ summit, but was called off by the EU due to a lack of progress on trade.
The series of ongoing disagreements has challenged the relationship. When the EU imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles last year, China launched anti-dumping probes into European brandy, dairy and pork, with the brandy probe due to end this Sunday (July 6).
The cancellation comes as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is in Europe for meetings in Brussels, Germany and France.
In a meeting on Wednesday, European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Wang that it was important to rebalance the economic relationship and end "distortive practices” including the restrictions on rare earths exports, according to a readout. She also urged China to end support for Russia’s military-industrial complex and back a full and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine.
At the meeting, Wang said that the two sides should regard each other as partners, not rivals, and should properly handle differences through communication, according to a Chinese statement.
Beijing is worried that the EU will agree a trade deal with the US that could damage Chinese interests. Chinese officials are particularly concerned that the EU might sign up to provisions similar to those in the UK’s deal with the US, which included commitments around supply chain security, export controls and ownership rules in sectors like steel.
The shortened summit is unexpected. The EU Chamber of Commerce in China was inviting members to sign up for the meetings in Hefei in an email Thursday morning, Beijing time. - Bloomberg
