The EU and China sparred on Monday over geopolitics and economics when the heads of the EU’s main institutions held video conferences with the Chinese premier and president.
EU criticism of a Chinese plan to curb Hong Kong’s autonomy, allegations that China has spread disinformation about COVID-19 and frustration over Beijing’s curbs on foreign investors featured prominently in the talks, according to European officials in Brussels.
European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) and then with President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Photo: EPA-EFE
The meetings were the first between the Chinese side and the EU institutions’ new leaders, who took office in December last year.
“Our discussions today were open and substantive,” Michel told reporters afterward. “We discussed many topics — topics we agree on but, of course, we discussed also topics we disagree on.”
The atmosphere has become gloomier since the last EU-China summit in April last year, when both sides pledged unity in the fight to uphold the multilateral order being challenged by US President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda and the Europeans claimed progress in prodding the Chinese government to pursue fairer economic policies.
While that meeting 14 months ago produced a much-hailed EU-China statement, no joint declaration emerged from Monday’s deliberations.
Also, unlike last year, the Chinese side opted against a joint press conference with the EU.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Wang Lutong (王魯彤) played down the absence of a joint statement at a briefing with reporters in Beijing yesterday.
“Please show some mercy to us,” said Wang, director-general of the ministry’s European Affairs Department.
“We’ve worked our heads off,” he said, adding that not every EU-China summit has produced a joint statement.
A controversial new Chinese national security measure for Hong Kong has so far prompted only finger wagging in Europe.
Michel said the EU had “grave concerns” about the move, while von der Leyen urged Beijing to reconsider its plan.
“There was candid and frank discussion on the security legislation in Hong Kong,” Wang said.
He reiterated China’s position that the issue was a “domestic affair” and that China “opposes any foreign interference.”
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, who joined Michel and Von der Leyen for the talks, has dismissed the notion of European penalties against Beijing.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a source of tension after Von der Leyen’s commission published a June 10 report that named China among “foreign actors” responsible for spreading disinformation about Covid-19 in the EU.
“The European Union is very active on dismantling the disinformation,” Von der Leyen said at the press conference with Michel. “We put against them the facts and the figures that are necessary to know.”
On the economic front, the EU’s main goal at the summit was to give political impetus to negotiations begun in 2013 with China on a pact that would reduce Chinese restrictions on European companies.
The bloc is pressing for, among other things, improved access in the automobile, biotechnology, telecommunications and computer services sectors, a senior European official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
Von der Leyen said China needed to give the matter high-level political attention if the year-end target date for an accord is to have any chance of being met.
“We are committed to making swift and substantial progress,” Von der Leyen said. “We count on the Chinese leadership to match our level of ambition.”
Xi said after the summit that China and the EU should accelerate negotiations on the investment pact, according to a statement on the Chinese ministry’s Web site.
Both sides should keep their markets open to each other, he said.
“Some real progress has been made” on the pact, Wang said. “We’ve still got half a year before the deadline set by leaders from two sides. We’ve got to be patient.”
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