During talks with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that cooperation and common ground between China and the EU outweigh competition and differences, and China is prepared to work with the EU to set the right direction and tone for China-EU ties, fully resume exchanges at all levels, and revitalize mutually-beneficial cooperation in various fields, injecting fresh impetus into China-EU relations and global peace, stability and prosperity.
President Xi also supported Macron's plan for European strategic autonomy. But according to an article in the South China Morning Post, Macron’s failure to convince Xi to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine means little chance of improved China-EU ties. French President Macron has wrapped up his three-day state visit to China, marked by pomp, pageantry and lucrative deals, as both China and the EU try to strike a new balance on how to manage their strained ties amid the Ukraine crisis.
Accompanied by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Macron has sought a non-confrontational approach to “de-risk” Europe's relations with China, while Beijing has shown enthusiasm towards France’s strategic autonomy in the midst of the deepening U.S.-China feud. The visit has officially been hailed as a diplomatic success, but in the absence of concrete results regarding the Ukraine war and economic and geopolitical differences, most observers remain skeptical about the future of the EU's engagement with China. Analysts said Beijing’s special treatment of Macron underlined Xi’s high hopes for him. Macron has sought to position France as a “balancing power” between China and the U.S. and carefully avoided pushing China too hard on Ukraine, Taiwan, or other issues deemed sensitive by Beijing.
During his formal talks with Macron and a rare joint press conference, Xi stressed that China regarded Europe as “an independent pole in a multipolar world”. “China supports Europe in achieving strategic autonomy, upholds that the China-Europe relationship is not targeted at, subjugated to, or controlled by any third party, and believes that Europe will take an independent approach to developing its relations with China,” Xi was quoted as saying. But Xi also warned EU Commission President von der Leyen and China skeptics in Brussels to keep their distance from Washington’s adversarial approach to Beijing. “The two sides should seek common ground while shelving differences. Playing up the so-called ‘democracy vs authoritarianism’ narrative and stoking a new cold war will only bring division and confrontation to the world,” Xi said.
Beijing seemed particularly annoyed by von der Leyen's assertion that China’s stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would be “a determining factor” for future EU-China ties, with China’s Ambassador to the EU Fu Cong chastising the “deep-seated ambivalence” in Brussels. While von der Leyen and major European powers put forward the idea of strategic autonomy in response to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s unilateral approach to the U.S.-Europe transatlantic alliance, Cui Hongjian, Director of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, noted that the concept has been expanded to cover China and Russia. “Aside from reducing security dependence on the U.S., there have also been calls for Europe to end its energy dependence on Russia in the wake of the Ukraine crisis and to curb its dependence on the Chinese market, which Beijing is clearly opposed to,” Cui said.
Macron declined to comment on von der Leyen’s tough remarks concerning China, but dismissed criticism of his calls to “de-risk” European ties with Beijing. “Strategic autonomy doesn’t mean autarky,” he said at an event at the French Embassy in Beijing. “It’s the difference between de-risking and decoupling.” Cui said that the European leaders’ visits would help stabilize ties between China and Europe. “Against the backdrop of tumultuous changes and major shifts in global politics, all parties have emphasized stability and confirmed their willingness to cooperate in principle, setting the tone for the future development of their ties,” he said. “I think their visits have exceeded prior pessimistic expectations and should be viewed as a success.”
Highlighting China’s efforts to pull France and the EU closer, both China Daily and the Global Times, China's two largest English-language newspapers, published editorials praising France’s strategic autonomy under Macron. The Global Times also took a jab at von der Leyen’s toughness on China, describing her criticism of China’s so-called repressive domestic policy and diplomatic assertiveness as “naive” and “severely out of touch with the times”. “European leaders do not all sing from the same hymn book on engagement and involvement with China, and the biggest rift appears to be between the more skeptical European Commission and some Eastern European countries on the one hand, and a more commercially-driven France and Germany on the other,” George Magnus, Research Associate at Oxford University’s China Center, said. With little constructive results on the Ukraine war, it would be hard to see a substantial improvement of China-EU ties, he added. “But they certainly leave Beijing assured that the two largest countries in the EU are keen to keep economic interchange and political dialogue going, regardless,” Magnus said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
